»HJ 


The 

Problem 

of 

Elementary 

Composition 

Spalding 


D.C. Heath 
C  Co, 
Boston. 


Southern   Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 

H08 

Sl3y 
Coo.\ 


This   book   is   DUE   on    llic   last   date   stamped    below 


WV  2  2  1954 


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« ■ 


THE    PROBLEM 


OF 


Elementary  Composition 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  ITS  SOLUTION 


BV 

ELIZABETH  H.  SPALDING 
Teacher  of  English  in  Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn,  N.Y. 


/  S/)  4--1 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 

D. 

C. 

UK 

ATil  &  CO.,  PUBLISIIE 
1903 

StP    1906 

RS 

Copyright,  1896, 
By  Elizabeth  H.  Spalding. 


f 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    A  Word  to  the  Reader 1 

n.    Letter-Writing    . 4 

in.    Story-Teluxg 14 

IV.    Word-Collecting  :  Etymology     .......      27 

V.    Descriptions 38 

VI.     The  Simile  and  Personification 51 

VII.    Finding  Much  in  Little  :  Elaboration  of  Sen- 
tences into  Paragraphs 64 

VIII.    Building  :  Outlining  Compositions 76 

TX.  A  Word  About  :  Weeding  ;  Synonyms  ;  Imitative 
Words  ;  The  Simple  Future  and  the  Future 
OF  Volition  ;  The  Misrelated  Participle  ; 
The  Sequence  of  Tenses  ;  The  Lack  of  Di- 
rect Discourse  ;  The  Chain  Construction  of 
Relative  Clauses  ;  The  Use  of  Explana- 
tory AND  Restrictive  Relative  Clauses  ; 
The  Sepauation  of  the  Infinitive  and  Its 
Sign  ;  Cultivating  the  Power  to  Think  and 
THE  Power  to  Feel  ;  Examination  Questions.      88 

X.    Talking  it  Oviii; :  Criticism 105 


THE    PROBLEM 


OF 


ELEMENTARY    COMPOSITION 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  ITS  SOLUTION. 


CHAPTER   I. 


A   "WORD    TO   THE    READER. 


These  chapters  were  written  for  delivery  before  the 
Brooklyn  Teachers'  Association,  and  without  thought 
of  subsequent  publication.  They  are  now  gathered 
into  a  book  in  response  to  the  request  of  many  inter- 
ested in  elementary  composition.  It  has  seemed  de- 
sirable to  retain  them  in  their  original  form,  familiar 
and  unconventional  as  tliat  is. 

The  writer  believes  that  composition  work  need  not    '^ 
be  restricted  to  the  production  of  written  themes,  but  _ 
that  it  may  include  speaking  as  well  as  writing,  work 
by  a  little  community  as  well  as  work  Ijy  individuals, 
and   interesting    conversations    to   rouse   thought   and 
deepen  feeling. 

Another  chapter  miglit  have  been  added,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  versification.     Tliere  appears  to  be    no  reason  ^ 


1 


2  ELEMENTARY   COMPOSITION. 

why  children  should  not  write  songs,  even  at  a  com- 
paratively  early   age.     A   class   might   select   a  well- 
known  air  from  the  song-book,  mark  on  the  blackboard 
its  metre,  choose  a  subject,  and,  as  a  class,  find  words  "^ 
to  suit  both  subject  and  metre.     The  rhyme  would  fur-  »— 
nish  material  for  a   second  exercise.     It  is  true  that 
inspiration  might  seem  to  follow  rather  than  precede  -^ 
such  work ;  it  would  be  felt,  however,  as  soon  as  the 
stanza  had  begun  to  take  shape,  and  it  would  be  more 
fully   felt   when   the   stanza   was    sung.      The   words    '^ 
would   very   likely  reproduce   the   class   environment, 
experience,  wishes,  or  aspirations.     By  degrees  consid- 
erable knowledge  of  versification  would  be  acquired, 
and  a  teacher  might  be  surprised  by  original  arrange- 
ments.    Is  there  danger  that  such  study  of  ways  and 
means   would    make    children   lovers   of    mere   form  ?  - 
Hardly,  if  at  the  same  time  they  were  reading  poems 
that  stirred  their  blood  or  charmed  their  fancy.     Quite 
spontaneous  efforts  of  their  own  might  come  later. 

Who  that  has  had  children  stand  beside  him,  trem- 
bling with  eagerness  to  attempt  his  work,  and  has  lis- 
tened to  their  "  Let  me  try  !  "  would  refuse  them  their 
opportunity?  Does  not  expression,  like  every  other 
natural  thing,  grow  into  the  perfection  of  power? 
Had  not  logic  its  beginning  in  a  first  judgment,  and 
the  novel  in  a  narrative  sentence  or  paragraph?  Is 
not  race  history  being  used  as  a  key  to  child  develop- 
ment?    Because  the  child  cannot  write  the  logic  or 


A    WORD   TO   THE  READER.  3 

the  novel,  shall  we  invent  for  his  outreaching  mind  y 
a  barrier  of  formulas  and  conventionality,  thicker  and 
thornier  than  the  hedge  which  shut  in  the  Sleeping 
Beauty  and  all  that  she  influenced ;  shut  them  in  with 
their  beauty  and  their  torpor  —  away  from  the  awak- 
ening presence  ? 

These  pages  are  for  those  who  would  give  life  to      x/^ 
grammar  and  rhetoric  by  means  of  original  and  vigor- 
ous effort  in  composition. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LETTER-WRITING. 

To  enable  a  student  to  grasp  another's  thought, 
and  appreciate  the  force  or  beauty  of  another's  lan- 
guage ;  to  enable  him,  also,  to  utter  himself,  either 
by  voice  or  by  pen,  —  this,  no  one  will  dispute,  should 
be  the  chief  aim  of  the  teacher  of  composition. 
0  How  shall  we  begin  elementary  instruction  in  com- 
position? I  am  convinced  that,  in  order  to  gain  co- 
operation from  the  pupil,  —  and  this  is  absolutely  es- 
sential,—  two  things  must  be  given  to  him:  a  sense 
of  security,  of  confidence ;  and  a  glow  of  delight. 
The  sense  of  security,  the  feeling  of  confidence,  will, 
I  believe,  best  be  gained  by  working  together  at  the 
very  outset.  A  dozen  timid  souls,  if  companions, 
gain  courage  to  brave  work  as  well  as  danger;  and, 
while  so  entirely  untrained  and  unaccustomed  to  the 
work,  their  union  of  effort,  under  intelligent  guid- 
ance, is  likely  to  give  a  result  more  tangible,  more 
effective,  and  so  more  encouraging,  than  the  single 
effort  of  any  one  of  them  —  unless  a  genius  —  could 
have  given.  Self-reliance  is,  undoubtedly,  a  neces- 
sity ;    but   there    is   a   genial  something   infused   into 

4 


LETTER-WRITING.  5 

composition  work  by  a  combined  effort  at  the  start. 
We  all  are  friendly,  are  working  at  the  same  thing ; 
there  is  no  cause  for  painful  self-consciousness  nor 
for  embarrassment,  surely  none  for  fear.  The  feel- 
ing of  confidence  may  be  heightened  later  on  by  con- 
versations about  the  mother-tongue.  A  pupil  may 
realize  that  his  native  language  is  his  rightful  posses- 
sion —  veritably  the  "  mother  "-tongue  and  his  ;  that 
it  will  aid  him  to  utter  himself,  to  set  free  his  other- 
wise imprisoned  thoughts ;  that  it  will  make  fruitful 
the  work  of  his  brain ;  that  it  will  make  helpful  the 
love  in  his  heart.  He  may  also  come  to  understand 
that  his  mother-tongue  deserves  his  respect  and  pro- 
tection, that  it  is  beautiful,  that  the  greatest  minds 
have  reverenced  it,  that  its  purity  should  be  even 
jealously  guarded. 

What  shall  be  the  fii'st  work  done  together?  Not 
written  work,  by  any  means.  I  should  be  tempted 
to  "spring  "  my  first  lesson  on  the  unsuspecting  chil- 
dren. There  would  be  some  event,  some  happening,  cx^ 
that  might  be  orally  told,  one  and  another  contribut- 
ing to  the  narration  of  the  incident.  "  Why,  how 
easily  you  talk,  do  you  not?  Did  you  ever  try  talk- 
ing with  your  pens  or  pencils?  What  is  the.  use  of 
trying  it,  anyhow  ? "  Among  the  many,  some  an- 
swers there  will  be  making  clear  to  the  boys  and 
girls  that  there  is  a  use,  even  a  need,  for  writing ; 
that  he  who  cannot  write  is  to  a  degree  dumb. 


6  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

The  natural  way  to  show  this  need,  this  useful- 
ness, is,  I  think,  to  write  a  school-letter  —  a  simple, 
brief  little  letter,  contrived  by  putting  all  the  heads 
together;  a  letter  neatly  written  out,  and  actually 
sent  somewhere  —  to  another  school  ?  from  No.  11  to 
No.  15  ?  from  No.  15  to  No.  45  ?  to  an  absent  friend 
across  the  sea?  There  is  a  sense  of  neighborliness 
born  of  a  letter  and  its  quick  reply,  as  there  is  a 
zest  in  communicating  with  far-off  lands. 

Of  course  in  such  instruction  we  shall  not  be  hyper- 
critical, but  we  may  be  discriminating.  "  Oh,  dear ! 
would  you  put  that  in?  It  is  so  unpleasant;  and 
what  good  does  it  do?  Would  you  care  for  it  your- 
self ?  "     The  Golden  Rule  applies  here  as  elsewhere. 

So,  discriminating  we  will  be ;  but  we  will  be  tol- 
erant, generous.  The  little  artist  shall  feel  his  power, 
and  shall  delight  in  it  too.  We  will  give  him  his 
opportunity.  He  shall  share  his  gifts,  shall  bestow 
something  of  his  own  insight  upon  his  duller  neigh- 
bor. It  may  be  that  the  children  in  their  letter 
have  said  that  the  wind  "  sounded  strange."  We 
shall  find  some  one  ready,  perhaps  after  a  quiet  min- 
ute for  thought,  with  a  good  verb  for  that  "sounded 
strange."  It  "howled"  or  "sighed,"  it  "shrieked"  or 
"  whispered."  Suppose  the  children  have  told  of  the 
flight  of  birds.  Did  these  "swoop,"  or  "flutter,"  or 
"circle,"  or  what?  Some  one  thing  they  certainly 
did   do,   and  not  the   others.      The  fitting  in  of  the 


LETTER-WRITING.  7 

proper  word  will  have  given  an  impetus  to  an  entire 
class.  This  is  nice  work?  It  is  what  the  children 
like ;  and  it  is  what  kindergartens  are  making  pos- 
sible, because  they  cultivate  the  power  to  observe  ac- 
curately. It  is  in  just  such  ways  that  delight  takes 
possession  of  the  child.  He  intuitively  appreciates 
words  that  are  exact;  he  is  a  lover  of   the  truth. 

The  actual  sending  off  of  the  little  paragraph,  or 
page  or  two,  helps.  Why  ?  Because  it  makes  all 
the  work  very  real ;  because,  too,  it  will  bring  up  for 
discussion  many  of  the  points  of  letter-writing,  and  it 
will  do  this  most  naturally.  For  instance,  the  boys 
and  girls  eagerly  await  a  reply.  Promptness  in  an- 
swering a  correspondent  is  considered,  and  a  second 
time  that  embodiment  of  ethics,  the  Golden  Rule, 
determines;  or,  possibly,  the  hurry  and  J^een  compe- 
tition of  the  business  world  —  so  apparent,  aliis !  even 
to  childish  eyes  —  decides. 

Perhaps  the  letter  went  astra)^ !  Was  it  properly 
addressed?  The  right  way,  the  usual  way,  is  empha- 
sized,—  it  lias  already  been  taught,  —  and  the  horizon 
of  the  little  people  may  be  widened  by  an  imaginary 
I)eep  into  the  Dead-Letter  Oflice,  and  In  a  little  clear 
information  regarding  the  postal  systems  of  long  ago 
and  of  now.  Some  knowledge  of  the  blessings  of 
civilization  and  government  may  bo  acquired,  while 
the  little  correspondents,  in  imagination,  follow  their 
letter  as  it  is  r-arricd   in   sufi-lv  to  streets  or  cities  or 


8  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

lands  quite  new  to  tliem.  And  why  should  not  patri- 
otism begin  to  be ;  or,  if  already  existing,  why  should 
it  not  thus  be  fostered? 

Our  first  letter  accomplished  together,  others  will 
naturally  follow,  done  by  individuals,  but  not  too 
many,  nor  all  at  once ;  for  letter- writing  may  be  kept 
up  for  years :  moreover,  monotony  is  killing  to  the 
spirit. 

Surely,  although  we  would  not  be  mere  imitators, 
it  is  not  amiss  very  early  in  this  work  to  read  some 
of  the  letters  of  Phillips  Brooks  and  of  other  lovers 
of  children.  Bishop  Brooks's  Letters  of  Travel,  es- 
pecially those  to  "  Gertie  "  in  yl  Year  in  Europe  and 
India,  are  a  veritable  mine.  How  living  a  thing  geog- 
raphy becomes  with  such  parallel  work.  From  Kandy 
he  wrote  :  — » 

"Oh,  this  beautiful  island  of  Ceylon! 

With  the  cocoanut-trees  on  the  shore; 
is  shaped  like  a  pear  with  the  peel  on, 
And  Kandy  lies  in  at  the  core." 

The  rhyme  sent  from  the  P.  and  O.  steamship  Verona 
to  "  Little  Mistress  Josephine,"  and  the  letters  to 
"  Gertie "  from  Jeypore  and  Venice,  could  not  be 
passed  by.  His  visit  to  Tennyson  is  charmingly  told 
to  one  of  his  correspondents.  His  letters  unify  them- 
selves not  only  with  geography,  history,  and  literature, 
but  also  with  the  glad  nature  of  the  child. 

Some  of  the  older  pupils   will  appreciate  Benjamin 


LETTER-WRITING.  9 

Franklin's  letter  to  Noah  "Webster,  written  while  the 
latter  was  compiling  his  dictionary.  I  refer,  of  course, 
to  the  correspondence  "  On  New-Fangled  Modes  of 
Writing  and  Printing."  To  know  that  the  man  who 
was  stiff-necked  before  royalty  could  beg  Webster  to 
guard  the  purity  of  our  language,  might  add  to  a 
pupil's  respect  for  English. 

Holmes's  letter  to  the  school-children  of  Cincinnati 
on  their  celebration  of  his  seventy-first  year,  would 
have  a  personal  interest  for  any  class. 

We  would  not  forget  some  of  Eugene  Field's  letters, 
Edwin  Booth's  to  his  daughter,  Macaulay's  to  his  little 
niece  Margaret,  some  of  Marjorie  Fleming's,  many  of 
Chesterfield's  to  his  son,  the  Familiar  Letters  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  extracts  from  Cowper's  letters,  and  count- 
less others,  —  all  interesting,  and  more  or  less  educa- 
tive. 

Charm  and  Courtesy  in  Letter -Writing,  by  Callaway, 
is  profitable  collateral  reading. 

It  will  easily  be  perceived  that  letters  bring  us  closer 
to  men  and  women  than  does  any  other  kind  of  writ- 
ing; closer,  sometimes,  than  conversation  could  bring 
us.  For  instance,  will  not  this  extract  from  Keats, 
printed  in  TJie  Outlook  of  Oct.  26,  1895,  not  only 
amuse  a  class,  but  also  helj)  to  a  conception  of  the 
personality  of  the  poet  whose  genius  tliey  will  some 
day  reverence  ?  Tliis  letter  is  to  Keats'ti  sister 
Fanny : — 


10  ELEMENTARY   COMPOSITION. 

"  I  get  so  hungry  a  ham  goes  but  very  little  way,  and 
fowls  are  like  larks  to  me ;  a  batch  of  bread  I  make  no 
more  ado  about  than  a  sheet  of  Parliament,  and  I  can 
eat  a  bull's  head  as  easily  as  I  used  to  do  a  bull's  eye. 
I  take  a  whole  string  of  sausages  down  as  easily  as  a 
pen'orth  of  lady's  fingers.  Ah,  dear,  I  must  soon  be  con- 
tented with  an  acre  or  two  of  oaten  cake,  a  hogshead  of 
milk,  and  a  clothes-basket  of  eggs. 

"  My  dear  Fanny,  I  am  ashamed  of  writing  you  such 
stuff,  nor  would  I  if  it  were  not  for  being  tired  after  my 
day's  walking,  and  ready  to  tumble  into  bed  so  fatigued 
that  when  I  am  asleep  you  might  sew  my  nose  to  my 
great  toe,  and  trundle  me  round  the  town,  like  a  hoop, 
without  waking  me." 

And  is  not  the  man  who  could  love  a  nation  with 
absorbing  devotion  and  yet  have  a  haunting  pity  and 
tenderness  for  others  sacrificing  themselves  for  the 
same  nation,  revealed  in  more  than  one  of  Lincoln's 
brief  letters  ?  To  Mrs.  Bixby  of  Massachusetts,  whose 
five  sons  had  died  on  the  battlefield,  Lincoln  wrote 
with  warm  sympathy,  hoping  that  the  anguish  of  her 
bereavement  might  be  assuaged,  and  there  be  left  only 
the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  a 
solemn  pride  to  have  laid  such  a  sacrifice  upon  the 
altar  of  freedom.  Such  words  teach  more  than  the 
art  of  letter- writing :  patriotism  is  in  them ;  and  those 
who  read  may  some  day  assume  with  "  solemn  pride  " 
responsibility  for  the  •  land  that  such  men  and  such 
women  bid  them  love. 


LETTER-WRITING.  11 

It  would  increase  both  interest  and  friendliness  to 
have  a  letter-box  in  the  room,  and,  of  course,  that  box 
would  have  a  key;  otherwise,  how  much  of  impor- 
tance and  of  mystery  would  be  lost,  and  what  a  reward 
of  merit  would  be  overlooked.  Each  row  of  pupils 
might  have  their  day  for  writing  to  the  class.  Some 
homely  thing  would  be  attempted,  —  the  telling  about 
a  pet,  or  about  anything  dear  to  the  writer's  heart. 
The  most  desolate  child  finds  something  to  love,  and 
about  that  something  it  will  think,  and  chatter,  and 
—  write. 

During  these  exercises,  each  member  of  the  class 
will  have  learned  how  to  fold  and  address  a  letter, 
how  to  begin  and  end  it,  and  will  have  indicated  the 
proper  place  for  the  stamp.  Even  the  very  young 
members  might  learn  at  least  the  how  and  wherefore 
of  letter-writing. 

In  connection  with  such  practice  in  correspondence, 
the  making  of  a  scrap-book  would  be  quite  absorbing. 
There  might  be  pictures  of  the  old  mail-coach,  of  the 
modern  mail-car,  of  steamships,  of  monograms,  of  pos- 
tage-stamps from  different  countries.  How  much  of 
history  postage-stamps  reveal,  with  their  changing 
national  devices  and  their  heads  of  leaders  or  of 
sovereigns. 

Should  wc  hesitate  to  make  use  of  the  dictionary, 
even  in  the  primary  school  ?  I  have  heard  the  puz- 
zling question  of  a  four-year-old  boy  answered  in  this 


./ 


12  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

way:  "I  do  not  know;  I  am  learning  just  as  you 
are.  I  like  to  learn,  don't  you?  I  have  been  learn- 
ing longer  than  you  have  been,  and  I  ought  to  know 
a  good  deal  more.  And  I  do  know  where  to  find  out 
about  that."  Then  the  boy  and  his  friend — truly  she 
is  his  friend  —  sought  for  the  information  together ; 
and  the  little  fellow  was  more  than  satisfied  with  the 
result,  especially  since  there  was  a  picture  of  just  what 
he  had  asked  about.  He  now  pulls  out  the  dictionary 
when  perplexed ;  and  although  he  cannot  read,  —  hav- 
ing spent  nearly  all  his  life  in  alternate  sleep  and  out- 
of-door  play,  —  he  knows  a  good  deal  about  sources 
of  information  and  how  to  utilize  them. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand,  moreover,  why  the  upper 
schools  have  the  most  of  the  ease  and  joy  of  work  — 
the  most  of  the  fine  tools.  Surely  they  do  not  wish 
to  monopolize  them.  A  primary  school  needs  its  well- 
selected  library  of  wonderful  scientific  facts,  of  charm- 
ing correspondence,  of  true  or  fanciful  descriptions,  of 
fascinating  stories,  of  instructive  travels.  And  why 
should  it  not  have  its  dictionaries  —  the  usual  diction- 
ary, and,  in  addition,  at  least  a  dictionary  of  names  ? 
And  who,  with  the  teacher  to  simplify  and  interpret, 
would  forbid  a  free  use  of  the  books  ?  Suppose  they 
do  become  shabby?  Suppose  they  wear  out?  So 
much  the  better,  if  the  wearing  out  be  not  the  result 
of  carelessness.  Fresh  books  may  be  had,  and  the 
keener  intelligence  of  the  class  will  pay  for  them. 


LETTER-WRITING.  13 

SUMMARY. 

During  this  one  set  of  exercises,  then,  — 
I.  We  shall  have  either  created  or  increased:  a  feeling  of 
friendliness,  of  fellowship ;  a  sense  of  power ;  that 
delight  which  comes  from  the  fine  accomplishment 
of  any  worthy  thing;  appreciation  of  another's 
work ;  and  a  realization  of  the  value  of  composi- 
tion, —  perhaps  especially  of  written  composition, 
—  which  value  we  shall  have  illustrated. 
II.  We  shall  have  begun  to  think  about  purity,  propriety, 
and  precision,  although  we  may  not  have  breathed 
their  names. 

III.  We  shall  have  connected  our  little  letters  with  the 

postal  systems  of  the  world,  shall  have  roused  an 
interest  in  foreign  nations,  and  shall  have  in- 
creased the  love  for  our  own. 

IV.  We  shall  have  met  familiarly,  by  means  of  their  cor- 

respondence, a  few  great  men  and  women. 
V.    We   shall    have   begun   the   collection  of   interesting 

material  into  scrap-books. 
VI.    We  shall  have  located  and  looked  into  some  of  the 
sources  of  general  and  special  information. 
How  much  more  any  one  of  us  might  do,  who  will  ven- 
ture to  say  ?     These  are  the  merest  general  suggestions. 


CHAPTER   III. 


STORY-TELLING. 


Narration  presupposes,  of  course,  the  possession 
of  imagination  by  the  narrator:  sometimes,  of  only 
the  imagination  that  represents,  calling  to  mind  what 
has  been  tasted  or  felt  or  seen  or  heard;  sometimes, 
of  the  inventive  imagination,  which  creates.  To  de- 
scribe a  city  so  that  those  who  actually  dwell  in  it 
will  feel  at  home  in  your  pictured  city,  requires  the 
imagination  that  reproduces ;  to  make  an  ingenious 
plot  requires  inventive  imagination.  Perhaps  I  can- 
not do  better,  just  here,  than  to  quote  half  a  page 
from  Compayre  on  this  subject :  — 

"  Let  us  then,"  he  says,  "  nourish  the  imagination 
of  the  child  with  noble  images  taken  either  from  real 
history  or  from  the  purest  inventions  of  human  genius. 
But  let  us  not  think  that  our  task,  even  in  the  pri- 
mary school,  is  confined  to  this  somewhat  passive  edu- 
cation of  the  imagination.  To  this  must  be  joined 
a  sort  of  active  education,  by  discreetly  exercising 
the  pupil  at  brief  efforts  in  literary  composition. 
To  get  pupils  to  acquire  a  taste  for  this  exercise 
[exercise  in   literary  composition],  and  to  succeed  in 

14 


STORY-TELLING.  16 

it,  is  not,  perhaps,  so  difficult  a  task  as  is  generally 
believed." 

Compayre  then  quotes  Tolsto'i  's  opinion,  that  "  in-  ^ 
structors  are  deceived  when  they  choose  for  the  sub- 
jects of  early  composition  the  description  of  an  object, 
as   a   table   or   a   bench    for   example ; "    adding   that 
Tolsto'i    "  maintains,    and    not    without    reason,    that 
those  descriptions  which  bring  into  play  only  the  rep-^ 
resentative  imagination    interest  the  child   much   less  ^ 
than  the  relation  of  a  story.     '  The  same  pupil,'  says 
he  [Tolsto'i],  'who  weeps  over  having  a  bench  to  de- 
scribe, will   give    ready  expression  to   a  sentiment  of  ^ 
love  or  hate.' " 

Agreeable  as  it  may  be  to  have  Compayrd  and  Tol- 
sto'i indorse  us  in  the  teaching  of  narration  to  young 
children,  I  fancy  that  it  will  be  quite  satisfactory  to 
be  assured  that  we  may  do  so  by  tlie  children  them- 
selves, as  we  watch  them  at  their  work  or  at  their 
play.  After  we  have  seen  them  construct  men,  women, 
and  furniture  from  mere  nothings ;  make  bird-cages 
out  of  disks  of  pasteboard,  with  pins  for  cage-bars 
and  with  flies  for  birds ;  and  go  to  sea  in  a  hammock, 
riding  safe  over  imagined  rough  waves,  —  we  may  be 
ready  to  grant  that  they  have  a  good  deal  of  inventive 
power;  if  we  are  still  sceptical,  they  will  eventually 
convince  us  by  a  tliousand  ingenious  contrivances. 
Everybody  knows  tliat  some  cliildren  prefer  imagined 
playmates    to    real    ones,    and    will     i)erplex    a    more 


16  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

practical  brother  or  sister  by  crying  out,  "  Oh,  please 
don't  sit  there  !  Alice  is  in  that  chair  !  "  Alice  being 
nothing  but  air  to  those  who  live  altogether  in 
the  world  of  realities.  I  have  known  a  little  bit  of 
a  girl,  just  for  the  delight  of  romancing,  tell  of  an 
afternoon  walk  full  of  imagined,  but  not  improbable, 
adventures.  Later  it  transpired  that  she  could  not 
have  taken  the  walk.  It  is,  indeed,  sometimes  diffi- 
cult to  know,  unless  we  can  read  the  face,  when  a 
child  is  deliberately  falsifying,  and  when  he  is  inno- 
cently inventing. 

Children  may  have,  too,  a  sense  of  plot-construc- 
tion. I  have  known  a  boy  of  four,  without  a  hint 
from  any  one,  so  to  fit  parts  of  several  songs  together 
as  to  weave  them  into  a  story.  He  had  often  heard 
the  song,  "Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  the  boys  are  march- 
ing." One  day  he  said,  "Sing  about  the  boy  that 
cried."     He  listened  throughout  the  stanza :  — 

"  In  the  prison-cell  I  sit,  thinking,  mother  dear,  of  you, 
And  the  bright  and  happy  home  so  far  away ; 
And  the  tears  they  fill  my  eyes,  spite  of  all  that  I  can  do, 
Though  I  try  to  cheer  my  comrades  and  be  gay," 

Then,  alive  with  excitement,  he  exclaimed,  "  Stop  right 
there  !  Now  sing,  '  Marching  through  Georgia.'  "  He 
allowed  that  to  go  on  until  he  had  evoked  the  fifty 
thousand  troops  marching  through  Georgia.  Then, 
just  as  excited,  he  said,  "Now  go  hack;  sing,  'Tramp, 


STORY-TELLING.  IT 

tramp,  tramp,  the  boys  came  marching,' "  which  was 
the  chorus  of  the  first  song ;  and,  having  thus  pro- 
vided the  fifty  thousand  necessary  troops  by  means  of 
"  Marching  through  Georgia,"  he  listened  with  shining 
eyes  to  the  account  of  how  the  prisoners  were  set  free. 
Then  he  concluded  with  a  sigh  of  relief,  "Now  sing, 
'  When  Johnny  comes  marching  home  again.' "  His 
eyes  beamed  as  he  remarked,  "I  suppose  the  boy  that 
cried  must  have  lived  in  Georgia ; "  adding,  with  great 
content,  "  He  is  at  home  now." 

How  shall  we  managfe  work  in  narration  ?     As  hith- 
erto,  we  will  make  it  oral  at  the  start,  and  we  will  do 
it  together.     We  will  read  and  discuss  short  stories.^ 
For  purposes  of  illustration,  let  me  outline  one  from 
the  German,  with  which  you  may  not  be  familiar:  — 

A  humpbacked  child  has  a  loving  mother,  who 
strives  to  sliield  her.  Mother  and  child  walk  out  to- 
gether daily ;  when  they  return  the  little  girl  asks, 
"Mother,  why  does  everj^body  look  at  me  so?"  The 
mother  answers,  "Perhaps  because  of  your  pretty 
dress ; "  then  she  catches  the  child  to  her  heart,  sob- 
bing, "  No  one  would  care  for  you  as  I  care  for  you." 
One  day  the  loving  mother  dies ;  and,  after  a  while, 
the  little  humpback  lias  a  new  motlior,  not  so  loving. 
This  new  motlicr  never  takes  tlie  cliild  out-of-doors ; 
day  after  day  tlic  luimpback  looks  wistfully  through 
the  window.  Finally  she  gains  courage  enough  to 
ask   the  stc£>-raotlier  to  take  her  out.     "Hunchbacks 


18  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

stay  in  the  house,"  answers  the  new  mother.  That 
day,  after  the  step-mother  has  gone  for  her  afternoon 
walk,  the  child  climbs  upon  a  chair  and  peers  into  a 
mirror.  She  sees  the  ugly  hump  and  wonders  what 
is  within  it.  Days  go  by,  and  the  little  humpback 
begins  to  droop.  She  grows  weak,  and  at  last  cannot 
leave  her  bed.  There  she  lies,  thinking  of  her  own 
sweet  mother,  or  wondering  and  wondering  what  is 
within  her  hump.  By  and  by  an  angel  comes  to  her, 
and  asks  if  she  would  like  to  go  to  heaven.  "  Oh, 
/  couldn't  go ;  nobody  wants  a  hunchback  !  "  she  cries 
out  sadly  but  submissively.  The  angel  smiles,  and 
with  her  beautiful  strong  hand  strokes  the  ugly  hump, 
saying,  "  You  have  no  hump.  Look ! "  The  child 
peeps  over  her  shoulder ;  the  hump  opens  like  a  shell 
and  falls  off,  leaving  two  lovely  white  wings  that  had 
been  growing  within  it.  With  a  glad  cry,  the  child 
floats  away  and  into  her  own  sweet  mother's  arras. 
>/  Suspense,  surprise,  and  suggestion  are,  I  think,  the 
main  points  to  bring  out  in  the  teaching  of  elemen- 
tary narration ;  and  skilful  questioning  will  enable  the 
children  to  make  their  own  discoveries  here.  For 
instance,  after  reading  the  story  just  outlined,  we  may 
ask,  "  What  did  you  like  best  in  the  story  ?  "  I  fancy 
that  nearly  every  one  will  have  been  especially  pleased 
by  the  finding  of  the  beautiful  wings  within  the  ugly 
shell  of  a  hump.  "Did  you  suspect  that  they  were 
there  ? "     Surely   nobody   did.     "  Do   you   think   that 


STORY-TELLING.  19 

you  would  have  been  so  delighted  had  you  known 
all  along  that  there  were  wings  in  the  hump?"  By 
means  of  this  and  similar  stories,  the  children  will 
discover  that  suspense  and  surprise  are  likely  to  add 
to  the  enjoyment  of  a  story.  Even  that  surprise\^ 
which  comes  from  making  the  climax  of  a  story 
utterly  unlike  what  one  has  been  led  to  look  for,  is 
by  no  means  beyond  the  appreciation  of  a  very  little 
boy  or  girl.  Often  such  a  contrast  has  in  it  some- 
thing akin  to  the  spirit  of  mischief  that  will  lead  a  '^ 
child  to  ask  you  what  "soft,  cunning  little  speckled 
thing "  is  in  his  hands,  letting  a  toad  hop  out. 

By  means  of  this  same  method  of  questioning,  we 
may  enable  our  class  to  prove  that  a  hint,  now  andv^ 
then,  of  something  that  is  coming  will  keep  the  reader 
or  the  listener  alert,  because  it  will  rouse  expectation. 

^Did  you  begin  to  get  curious  about  that  hump?" —  -^ 

"Why?"  Very  likely  some  of  the  class  will  have  ) 
noticed  that  the  hunchback  herself  wondered  and  won-  ^ 
dered  about  it;  for  the  original  story  makes  a  good 
deal  of  her  perplexity.  The  children  ought  to  appre- 
ciate this  principle  of  narration,  that  indefinite  sugges- 
tion—  a  hint  of  something  on  the  way  —  may  prove 
valuable.  Do  they  not  make  use  of  the  same  principle 
in  other  ways?  At  Christmas  time,  for  example,  how 
many  hints  they  give  of  something  tluit  may  happen 
sometime,  hoping  in  this  way  to  excite  curiosity  ;  and 
that  is  just  what  tlie  story-teller  plans  to  do  by  means 


20  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

of  his  hints  —  to  excite  curiosity,  and  keep  alive  his 
reader's  interest. 

Although  we  may  content  ourselves  in  elementary 
narration  with  the  teaching  of  these  three  points :  sus- 
pense, surprise,  —  sometimes  the  surprise  that  comes 
from  a  contrast,  —  and  suggestion,  yet  later,  in  another 
grade,  we  may  show  that  we  should  always  work  for 
/  the  climax  of  our  story,  that  we  should  bring  into 
it  only  wliat  will  help  it,  and  that  its  climax  is  not 
J  necessarily  at  its  end. 

After  reading  many  stories  together  and  talking 
about  them,  the  children  will  be  ready  to  set  to  work 
on  something  original.  Another  story  from  the  Ger- 
man may  be  suggestive  :  — 

The  attendant  sj^irits  of  a  good  man  wished  to  bless 
him  ;  he  was  always  blessing  others,  and  his  guardian 
spirits  would  bless  him.  But  the  good  man,  when 
they  asked  what  he  would  have,  could  not  help  them ; 
he  knew  of  nothing  to  wish  for,  helping  others  was 
his  happiness.  Then  his  guardian  spirits  consulted 
together.  They  were  in  despair  until  one  cried,  "  If 
we  cannot  bless  him,  let  us  bless  his  shadow ! "  and 
that  is  what  they  did. 

Without  finishing  the  original  story,  —  it  does  not 
end  here,  —  we  might  get  each  member  of  our  class 
to  invent  for  himself  "  What  Happened  Where  the 
Shadow  Fell ; "  for  marvellous  things  might  come  to 
pass. 


STORY-TELLING.  21 

Personification  ^Yill  help  some  of  the  class.  It  will 
be  natural  for  them  to  write  about  what  the  brook 
told  of  its  run  to  the  sea ;  or  how  a  mast  felt  as  it 
sailed  by  the  point  on  which  it  grew ;  or  how  a  fern, 
taken  from  the  woods  and  planted  in  a  window-box 
in  the  school-room,  liked  the  change.  Somebody  else, 
more  practical,  may  tell  "  How  a  Little  Boy  Helped  a 
Big  One,"  or,  "  How  Uncle  Jack  Walked  Home  in 
the  Blizzard." 

Does  the  work  as  thus  far  sketched  cultivate  inven- 
tive rather  than  representative  imagination  ?  No :  for 
we  cannot  write  of  the  brook  without  picturing  it, 
nor  of  Uncle  Jack  witliout  a  mental  image  of  him; 
our  representative  imagination  is  always  serving  us. 
We  will  insist  upon  accurate  observation,  —  which  is 
so  important  a  part  of  primary  instruction,  —  requir- 
ing true  pictures  in  words,  and  this  truthfulness  on 
tlie  part  of  the  representative  imagination,  which  will 
give  careful  reproductions  of  persons  and  things,  will 
be  likely  to  counteract  any  tendency  to  extravagance 
on  the  part  of  the  inventive  powers. 

But  the  teaching  of  narration  will  be  a  failure  unless  / 
it  cultivates  the  sensibilities.  Whatever  else  it  may 
do,  it  must  do  this.  A  question  of  the  right  sort  will 
set  pupils  thinking.  Sui)j)Osc  we  should  ask,  after 
the  story  outlined  at  the  beginning  of  this  talk  had 
been  read,  "  Wouldn't  you  have  liked  to  be  that  an- 
gel ?     Wouldn't   you  liave  liked   to   stroke   tlie   awk- 


22  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

ward  hump,  and  show  the  little  girl  the  graceful  white 
wings  that  she  had  never  dreamed  of?"  This  would 
start  conversation.  By  degrees,  we  might  get  well 
^  into  ethics  ;  and  likely  enough  this  story,  with  its 
patient  hunchback,  its  loving  and  its  unloving  mother, 

/    and   its   helpful   angel,   would  symbolize  a  good  deal 
for  the  children,  some  of  whicli  they  might  assimilate 
and  use  in  their  daily  life.     At  least  they  might  real- 
ize that,  if  not  angels,  yet  they  may  do  angelic  things. 
Suppose  to  an  older  class  we  had  read  from  The  Talis- 
man the  trial  of  strength  and  skill  between  King-  Rich- 
ard   and   the    Saracen,   giving   necessary  explanations. 
We  might  say,  "Isn't  it  a  fine  thing  to  be  strono-?" 
Then,  by  means   of  other  questions,   we  might  bring 
^  out   the   fact,   that   the    strength  of   the   tiger   is  one 
thing,  and   that  of  the  man  or  woman,  of  the  boy  or 
girl,  which  comes  from  a  loving  heart  or  a  pure  soul, 
is  quite  another;  that  we  fear  the  strength  of  the  un- 
tamed beast,  a  strength  which  tortures  and  kills  ;  while 
we  seek  the  strength  of  a  strong  friend,  the  strength 
which  protects  and  keeps.     We  might  show  that  power 
V  to  resist,  to  dare  to  turn  one's  back  on  baseness,  is  of 
a  superior  kind.     We  might  throw  a  bomb  into   the 
class,  and  exercise  their  memories  at   the  same  time, 
by  declaring,  "Do  you  know,  I  think  that  the  little 
hunchback  we  read  about  last  year  was  strong."     Pos- 
sibly some    one  will   see  that  it  was  in  patient  endu- 

J    ranee  and  uncomplaining  submission.     Before  leaving 


S  TOR  Y-  TELLING.  23 

the  subject,  we  might  be  able  to  show  that  a  strong 
spirit  can  do  most  when  it  has  a  strong  body  to  act  ^ 
for  it;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  strong  body^ 
needs  the  strong  will  and  the  strong  spirit  to  control 
it.  Suppose  we  had  read  a  little  from  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,  making  the  extract  easily  intelligible  by  means 
of  our  own  explanations.  That  might  call  out  the 
question,  "What  is  it  to  be  a  slave?"  You  will 
readily  see  how  interesting  and  profitable  a  conversa- 
tion with  this  for  its  topic  might  become.  For  the 
first  time,  the  children  might  behold  their  own  fetters, 
and  they  might  break  some  of  them ;  and  the  thought 
of  helping  those  enslaved  by  poverty,  or  crime,  or 
appetite,  or  disease,  thus  germinating,  might  in  later 
years  bear  fruit  in  fine  action.  Suppose  we  had  briefly 
told  Edward  E.  Hale's  story  of  Tlie  3Ian  Without  a  ^ 
Country,  letting  the  class  read  parts  of  it  aloud,  per- 
haps some  of  Philip  Nolan's  words  to  the  midship- 
man: "And  for  your  country,  boy,  and  for  that  flag, 
never  dream  a  dream  but  of  serving  her  as  slie  bids 
you.  .  .  .  Never  let  a  night  pass  but  you  pray  God 
to  bless  that  flag.  Remember,  boy,  that  behind  these 
men  you  have  to  do  with,  behind  officers,  and  govern- 
ment, and  people  even,  thei'C  is  the  Country  Herself, 
your  Country,  and  that  you  lj(;h)iig  to  Wvv  as  3'ou  be- 
long to  your  own  mother."  Owv  (|uestions  miglit  be: 
"When  you  look  at  th(!  flag,  wliat  do  you  see?"  — 
"When    armies    salute    the;   flag,   to   wliat   do   tlicy  do 


24  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

reverence?"  —  "When  men  give  their  lives  to  rescue 
their  flag,  what  is  it  that  their  blood  flows  for?"  A 
good  many  will  see  red,  white,  and  blue  bunting  when 
they  look  at  the  Stars  and  Stripes:  but  some  young 
/  patriots  are  likely  to  feel  that  it  is  a  symbol;  and, 
putting  all  our  heads  together,  we  may  at  last  perceive 
that  it  is  the  symbol  of  a  land  and  a  wonderful  history. 
Little  patriots  will  have  stirred  the  blood  of  their  in- 
different neighbors,  and  will  have  made  the  banner  of 
dullest  stuff  a  splendid  thing. 

Where  shall  this  work  in  composition  be  done  ? 
By  all  means,  in  the  school-room.  There  we  may 
create  the  proper  atmosphere,  may  push  the  little 
boats  off  rocks  or  sand-bars,  may  stimulate  and  en- 
courage. We  shall  expect  very  little,  but  we  must 
get  something. 

Practice  in  story-telling  ma}^  most  profitably  be  uni- 
fied with  work  in  science  and  history ;  for  the  tell- 
ing of  true  stories  will  be  helpful,  whether  they  be 
of  plants  or  of  animals,  of  patriots  or  of  discoveries. 

But  it  is  to  literature  that  the  teacher  will  natu- 
rally go  for  much  of  her  material.  There  she  will 
find  illustrations  for  every  phase  of  narration :  stories 
/  to  warn,  or  to  encourage,  or  to  excite  pity,  or  to 
rouse  heroism,  or  to  increase  generosity,  or  to  foster 
tenderness,  —  stories  that  will  cultivate  the  sensibil- 
ities. Is  there  a  possibility  of  life  or  of  the  soul 
that  is  not  vividly  revealed  in  some  story  ? 


STORY-TELLING.  25 

I  think  that  our  scrap-book  work  will  now  be  most 
interesting  if  mainly  given  up  to  the  authors  of  those 
stories  read  and  discussed  together.  Pictures  of  the 
writers,  of  their  homes,  of  their  families,  will  make 
the  men  and  women  seem  less  mythical. 

SUMMAJtr. 

If  this  chapter  has  accomplished  its  purpose,  it  has 
shown  :  — 

I.  That  narration  is  natural  to  young  children. 

II.  That  the  early  work  in  it  should  be  oral,  and  done 

by  teacher  and  pupils  together. 

III.  That  the  first  work  will  naturally  be  the  reading 
and  discussion  of  short  stories  or  of  extracts 
from  longer  ones. 
■  IV.  That,  by  means  of  skilful  questioning  regarding  the 
stories  read,  we  may  show  how  the  effect  of  nar- 
ration is  enhanced  by  means  of  suspense,  sur- 
prise, and  suggestion. 
V.  That  we  shall  probably  leave  for  later  years  spe- 
cial consideration  of  the  climax  and  the  end  of 
stories. 

VI.   That  original  work  will  be  helped  by  a  wise  choice 
of  subjects. 

VII.  That  work  in  narration  gives  opportunities  for  the 
cultivation  of  both  the  representative  and  the  in- 
ventive imagination. 
VIII.  That  exercise  of  the  representative  imagination  will 
act  as  a  check  upon  any  tendency  to  extravagance 
in  invention. 


26  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

IX.    That,  above  all  else,  the  study  of  narration  should 
cultivate  the  sensibilities,  and  that  this  is  likely 
to  be  most  successfully  done  by  means  of  conver- 
sations. 
X.   That  work  in  narration  should  be  unified  with  that 

in  science  and  history. 
XI.    That  to  literature  we  shall  naturally  go  for  much  of 

our  illustrative  material. 
XII.    That  scrap-books  will  enable  us  to  know  the  authors 
of   stories  and  to  feel   a  personal   friendship  for 
them. 
Truly,  the  universe  serves  the  story-teller. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

WORD-COLLECTING:   ETYMOLOGY. 

May  we  not,  in  a  third  series  of  exercises,  venture 
upon  simple  work  in  etymology?  The  need  of  larger 
vocabularies  has  been  felt  in  letter-writing  and  descrip- 
tions, as  well  as  in  reading ;  pupils  have  not  always 
had  ready  the  proper  words  for  their  own  thoughts, 
and  have  often  found  their  book  friends  using  expres- 
sions altogether  unfamiliar.  If,  then,  there  is  to  be 
scope  to  this  composition  work,  vocabularies  must  be 
enriched ;  new  words,  with  their  fresh  mental  images, 
must  be  acquired.  Therefore,  for  a  third  series,  I  sug- 
gest digging-exercises,  —  mining-work  among  the  treas- 
ures of  language,  where  so  much  knowledge  and  so 
many  nuggets  of   wisdom  are  hidden  away. 

How  is  it  best  to  set  about  the  work?  Perhaps 
your  classes  have  made  a  collection  of  flowers  or  of 
minerals?  At  all  events,  I  should  suggest  to  the 
children  that  we  make  a  collection  of  words  as  we 
would  make  one  of  minerals;  and  that  we  be  just  as 
inquisitive  about  the  words  as  about  the  minerals, 
finding  out  whence  they  come,  what  tliey  arc  good 
for,   why    they    were    made.     A    pujiil    likes    to    know 

27 


28  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

if  his  granite  came  from  Maine  or  from  Massachu. 
setts,  his  crystals  from  the  Carolinas  or  from  Colo- 
rado, his  malachite  from  Russia  or  from  Arizona;  he 
likes  to  know,  too,  the  uses  of  his  minerals :  and 
why  should  he  not  like  to  know  whence  his  words 
came,  and  what  they  may  do  for  him  ?  Some  of  them 
sailed  into  our  harbors  with  a  ship's  cargo ;  one  of 
them  holds  the  legend  of  a  mythical  hero ;  in  an- 
other is  a  chapter  of  veritable  history.  The  faith- 
ful seeker,  willing  to  do  a  little  digging  among  the 
roots  of  language,  will  look  up  from  his  discoveries 
with  sparkling  eyes. 

Suppose  we  give  our  class  an  inkling  of  what  is 
coming ?  "I  knew  that  I  was  going  to  ask  you  to 
begin  to-day  a  collection  of  words,  so  I  got  a  little  bit 
ahead  of  you  and  started  on  a  word-hunt  yesterday, 
all  by  myself.  I  will  tell  you  about  some  of  the 
things  I  came  upon.  The  strangest  thing  is,  that  I 
first  heard  some  news  —  it  was  news  to  me  —  about 
very  old  acquaintances ;  about  the  words  squirrel,  and 
daisy,  and  biscuit,  and  buckle,  and  petrel,  and  pilgrim. 
I  learned  that  the  family  to  which  our  little  squirrels 
belong  was  named,  hundreds  of  years  ago,  by  the  old 
Greeks,  who  lived  —  where  ?  Does  anybody  know  ? 
Yes:  away  off  there  in  the  south  of  Europe.  These 
old  Greeks  called  our  shy  friends  skiouroi ;  and  skiouros 
means,  in  the  Greek  language,  'shadow-tail.'  Was 
there  any  sense  in  calling  them   by  such  a  name?" 


WORD-COLLECTING:   ETYMOLOGY.  29 

Of  course  somebody,  probably  many,  will  see  the 
reason  for  the  name ;  and  surely  all  will  do  so  if  the 
picture  of  a  squirrel  sitting  under  the  shadow  of 
his  bushy  tail  be  at  hand,  and  such  a  picture  is  in 
many  dictionaries.  It  will  be  easy  to  show  that  the 
word  squirrel  actually  means  nothing  for  us  unless  »^ 
we  know  its  meaning  to  the  Greeks  that  gave  the 
name ;  just  as  the  word  Mississippi  holds  little  or  no  ^ 
significance  unless  we  know  its  full  significance  to 
the  Indians.  That  daisy  means  the  eye  of  day,  that 
its  yellow  centre  and  white  rays  have  classed  it  in 
men's  minds  with  the  real  eye  of  day,  the  sun,  will 
be  interestincf  enouffli.  Tlie  derivation  of  hucJde  from 
bucca,  a  face,  because  buckles  originally  bore  the  cast 
of  a  human  face,  will  hold  the  attention  that  has  been 
roused.  Biscuit,  and  pilgrim,  and  petrel  —  the  last  es- 
pecially satisfying  to  a  child's  fancy  —  may  be  looked 
up  together. 

This  will  be  the  natural  time  to  enforce  the  truth, 
that  in  word-collecting  it  is  not  safe  to  accept  the 
statement  of  anyone  without  verifying  it,  not  even 
the  statement  of  our  sister  or  brother  or  teacher. 
Before  we  label  our  words,  we  must  have  actually 
seen  their  meaning  and  derivation. 

While  we  are  Vnisy  looking  up  words  and  talking 
about  tlieni,  we  will  satisfy  ourselves  that  the  cliildrcn 
appreciate  the  fact  that  this  work  is  worth  while,  that 
we  are  going  to  make  something,  and  that  words  arc 


30  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

our  implements ;  that  we  need  them,  just  as  the  farmer 
needs  his  plough,  the  carpenter  his  plane,  the  fine 
sewer  her  needle,  and  the  artist  his  brush.  That  we 
are  going  to  make  letters  and  stories  and  songs,  as 
the  farmer  makes  ready  his  field,  as  the  carpenter 
makes  his  box,  the  fine  sewer  her  garment,  and  the 
artist  his  picture ;  that  we  are  going  to  write  of  the 
sky  and  the  earth  and  the  sea,  of  storms  and  of  sun- 
shine, of  deep  mines  and  of  ripening  fields,  and  of 
people  —  down  to  the  funny  old  man  grinding  away 
this  very  .minute  at  his  organ  under  the  school-room 
window.  Can  we  ever  get  words  enough?  We  shall 
need  words  that  will  roll  for  the  thunder,  and  words 
that  will  dance  for  the  sea,  and  words  that  will  laugh 
for  the  brook,  and  words  that  will  grin  for  the  organ- 
grinder.  To  find  them  we  shall  have  to  look,  and 
listen,  and  think.  If  we  use  our  ears  we  shall  hear 
new  words ;  if  we  use  our  eyes  we  shall  see  them  on 
the  printed  page ;  if  we  think  and  go  to  our  diction- 
aries, we  shall  find  in  familiar  words  meanings  that 
we  never  dreamed  they  held. 

Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  necessity 
of  verifying  all  statements  in  this  language  work.  It 
is,  of  course,  equally  needful  to  have  a  clear  idea  of 
the  primary  meaning  of  each  word.  Coleridge's  ad- 
vice, to  make  a  mind-picture  of  what  any  word  sym- 
bolizes in  its  first  meaning,  is  worth  following. 

Now  for  a  detailed  plan  of  work.     How  would  it 


WORD-COLLECTING:   ETYMOLOGY.  31 

do  for  the  class  to  learn  each  day  one  word?  That 
word  might  be  contributed  by  a  member  of  the  class, 
who  should  be  able  to  tell  all  about  it.  Collections 
of  minerals  are  kept  in  the  school-room;  I  should 
keep  this  collection  of  words  there,  Avritten  on  a  large, 
stiff  sheet  of  paper,  and  pinned  in  some  conspicuous 
place.  A  collection  of  minerals  would  be  labelled; 
these  words  should  be  —  from  the  Latin,  from  the  *^ 
Anglo-Saxon,  from  the  Greek.  And  I  should  add 
something  more,  a  sort  of  second  history,  telling 
how  the  boy  or  girl  came  upon  the  word.;  for  in- 
stance, — 

Margaret  — 

History  of  the  word  according  to  the  dictionary ;  con- 
tributed by  Margaret  Peabody,  who,  while  writing  her 
name,  wondered  what  it  meant. 

At  the  end  of  the  month  the  list  would  be  pasted 
into  the  scrap-book,  and  a  fresh  piece  of  paper  would 
be  jnnned  up  for  the  second  month's  memoranda. 

This  word-collecting  will  naturally  lead  to  the  con-     . 
sideration   of   synonyms;    moreover,   it   will   be   inter- 
esting, before  filing  away  auy  papei-,  to  group  the  words 
on  it  according   to  derivation.      Candy ^  candid.,  candi-y 
date.,    candle,    candytuft.,    Candia,    make   an   interesting 
grou[). 

Surely,  nobody  will  deny  that  tliese  exercises  may 
continue   as  long  as  a  pupil  goes  to  school.     Wisely 


32  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

taught,  they  will  suit  any  grade  from  the  primary 
school  throughout  the  high  school,  and  beyond  it. 
The  teacher  will  be  at  the  elbows  of  her  class  at 
first,  not  to  make  parasites  of  the  children,  but  to  in- 
terpret what  would  otherwise  be  incomprehensible. 

I  could  not  carry  on  this  research  satisfactorily  to 
myself,  even  with  an  elementary  class,  if  I  did  not 
first  succeed  in  giving  to  them  some  notion  of  the 
history  of  our  language,  and  of  the  peoples  that  have 
contributed  to  it.  Reality  in  their  work  appeals  to 
children;  and  when  they  feel,  as  Trench  says,  that 
"words  are  not,  like  the  sands  of  the  sea,  innumerable 
disconnected  atoms,  but  growing  out  of  roots,  cluster- 
ing in  families,  connecting  and  intertwining  themselves 
with  all  that  men  have  been  doing  and  thinking  and 
feeling  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  till  now,"  — 
then  they  will  have  that  sense  of  reality  which  comes 
from  grasping  the  actual.  A  child  old  enough  to 
understand  and  appreciate  one  of  Grimm's  fairy-tales 
can  understand  and  appreciate  the  story  of  the  English 
language,  especially  if  maps,  and  blackboards,  and  blue- 
prints are  used  to  illustrate  it.  The  early  Britons  in 
y  their  rude  huts,  the  conquering  Roman  legions,  the 
fierce  Teutonic  sea-wolves,  the  gay  but  brave  Normans, 
furnish  material  for  a  continued  story  so  interesting 
that  each  chapter  will  be  anticipated,  and,  better  still, 
will  be  remembered. 

While  we  may  easily   leave  derivatives  from  other 


WORD-COLLECTING :  ETYMOLOGY.  33 

tongues  than  those  mentioned  to  be  accounted  for  as 
they  occur,  this  bit  of  history  just  outlined  will  prove 
valuable  at  the  start.  Without  it,  we  shall  have  to 
confine  ourselves  to  mere  definitions ;  with  it,  we 
may  acquire  the  habit  of  searching  into  the  origin 
of  words,  Coleridge's  habit  of  "reflecting  on  words 
—  their  birth,  derivation,  and  history."  A.S.,  O.U., 
L.Grr.,  will  no  longer  be  mere  cabalistic  signs. 

It  will  be  in  line  with  our  sj^nonym  work  to 
show  how  its  different  elements  make  English  especi- 
ally lich  in  synonyms,  giving  to  the  worker  with 
words  as  many  shades  and  tints  as  any  painter  can 
command ;  so  that  the  fresh  greens  on  a  hillside  in 
spring,  —  a  hillside  of  fields  and  woods,  —  or  the  faces 
of  an  excited  group  at  the  street-corner,  will  be  no 
truer  as  represented  on  the  painter's  canvas  than  as 
they  take  form  and  color  on  the  printed  page. 

For  practice  in  synonym  work,  some  of  the  older 
pupils  will  like  to  take  Anglo-Saxon  rhymes  —  per- 
haps even  Mother-Goose  Melodies,  as  Mrs.  Lockwood 
suggests  —  and  substitute  for  their  simple  words  those 
derived  from  llie  Greek  or  the  Latin.  Tlie  simplicity 
of  many  of  the  original  rhymes  Avill  be  appreciated 
after  such  translations.  A  class  that  had  been  re- 
quested to  tell  of  any  benefit  derived  from  making 
a  classical  version  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  extract,  said, 
"  The  exercise  has  added  to  our  vocabularies,  has 
given  practice  in  the  use   of   the  dictionary,  and  lias 


/ 

• 


34  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

made  us  appreciate  as  never  before  the  value  of  the 
two  chief  elements  of  our  language." 

The  children  may  be  made  to  realize  that  Anglo- 
k^  Saxon  words  are  likely  to  lie  very  near  our  homes 
and  hearts,  as  they  tell  of  life  by  the  hearth  or 
in  the  field,  and  of  all  that  is  dearest  in  that  life. 
Almost  any  stirring,  line  or  sentence  that  appeals 
to  all  men  —  to  their  sympathy,  to  their  love,  to 
their  patriotism  —  may  be  read  and  appreciated,  and 
then  translated  into  tamer  classical  language.  Take, 
for  instance,  Halleck's  lines,  as  applicable  to  Ameri- 
cans as  to  Greeks  :  — 

"Strike  —  till  the  last  armed  foe  expires; 
Strike  —  for  your  altars  and  your  fires ; 
Strike  —  for  the  green  graves  of  your  sires ; 
God  and  your  native  land." 

How  spirited  this  is  will  be  more  evident  after  we 
have  made  a  classical  version,  whether  better  or  worse 
than  the  following :  — 

"Sacrifice  your  existences  till  all  enemies  have  per- 
ished; defend  your  Lares  and  Penates,  your  domi- 
ciles, and  the  mausoleums  of  your  ancestors ;  defend 
your  tutelary  deities  and  your  native  territory." 

The  value  of  the  classical  element  might  be  proved 
by  quotations  from  Milton  alone.  In  whatever  is 
meant  to  be  sonorous  its  usefulness  is  evident ;  while 
the  pleasing  variety  to  be  gained  by  drawing  wisely 


WORD-COLLECTING:   ETYMOLOGY.  35 

from  the  two  principal  elements  of  our  language  may 
be  made  very  clear  by  means  of  illustrative  extracts. 
There  will  be  little  of  this  work  in  very  elementaVy 
classes,  however,  and  that  little  will  be  done  tosrether. 

How  grateful  in  after  years  will  our  classes  be 
that  they  acquired  the  habit  of  studying  words  — 
their  origin,  their  proper  use,  and  the  distinction  be- 
tween one  and  another;  that  they  learned  thus  early 
to  value  them.  For  it  has  been  truly  said,  that  "  Lan- 
guage is  the  amber  in  which  a  thousand  precious  and 
subtle  thoughts  have  been  safely  embedded  and  pre- 
served." The  Roman  empire  is  gone,  but  we  teach 
her  language;  Christ  no  longer  walks  the  earth,  but 
his  words  are  the  world's  spiritual  life.  Though  the 
colors  on  the  canvas  pale  or  fade  altogether,  yet  the 
light  of  the  first  morning,  caught  and  held  in  a  word, 
pulsates  still;  safely  still,  single  words  guard  their 
treasures  —  too  well,  often,  for  the  careless  to  dis- 
cover them. 

Happy  is  the  child  that  has  the  power  of  expres- 
sion, that  can  utter  again  what  The  Infinite  tells  to 
him  in  secret ;  for  each  has  his  own  message,  and  joy 
comes  only  with  its  utterance :  liappier  the  world, 
too,  tliat  it  does  not  lose  the  message. 

How  much  literature  offers   in   its  connection  with 
word-study.     There    are    Gilman's    Short  Stories  from  ^ 
the  Dictionarif.,  Palmer's  Folk-Etymolotji/,  Trench's  The  V 
Study  of   WordHt    Waites's  Forjotten  Meujiinys,  Swiu-  / 


36  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

/^ ton's  Ramhles  Among  Words,  and  many  another  vol- 
ume of  the  same  sort.  And  then  there  are  Norse  sagas, 
sfories  and  songs  of  vikings ;  glimpses  from  the  Idylls 
*^  of  the  Ki7ig  of  Arthur  and  his  knights ;  glimpses 
"^from  Ivanhoe  of  sturdy  Saxon  and  of  bold  Norman ; 
glimpses,  too,  of  Roman  legions  and  eagles  and — of 
what  not? 

Not  less  enticing  will  be  scrap-book  work  —  that 
already  indicated,  the  lists  of  words,  and,  beside  these 
lists,  pictures  of  Celtic  cross,  of  Druidical  ruins,  of 
fragments  of  Roman  roads  and  walls,  of  archer  and 
Crusader,  of  joust,  of  tournament;  and  accounts  of 
friendly  or  of  hostile  invasions  of  land  and  language. 

SUMMAMT. 

During  this  third  set  of  exercises,  (i.)  we  shall  have 
gained :  — 

1.  A   knowledge,    however  meagre,  of  our  heritage  in 

language,  becoming  grateful  to  peoples  and  to  cen- 
turies. 

2.  An  appreciation  of  the  value  of  words,  and  a  desire 

to  discover  their  origin,  their  uses,  etc. 

3.  A  realization  of  the  fact  that  the  study  of  language 

is  an  exact  science,  that  nothing  is  to  be  assumed, 
that  statements  must  be  verified. 

4.  A  perception  of  the  truth,  that,  as  the  archer  needs 

a  full  quiver,  so  the  writer  needs  a  full  vocabulary. 

II.  We  shall  have  sketched  a  plan  for  work  :  — 

1.    A  little  work  each  day  ;  that  work  thoroughly  done. 


WORB-COLLECTING  :   ETYMOLOGY.  37 

2.  The  work  to  be  written  out  and  plaxjed  where  it  may 

be  read  over  and  over. 

3.  Each  word  to  have  not  only  the  history  given  in  the 

dictionary,  but  also  the  history  of  its  discovery  by 
our  pupil,  thus  introducing  the  personal  element 
and  making  legitimate  use  of  self-love. 

iir.    We  shall  have  considered  some  synonyms. 

IV.    We  shall  have  felt  the  reciprocal  influence  of  litera- 
ture and  word-study. 

V.    We  shall  have  added  to  our  scrap-books. 

What  study  will  not  feel  an  impetus  from  this  work 
with  words  ? 


/  50'\'\ 


CHAPTER   V. 


DESCRIPTIONS. 


A  SERIES  of  descriptions  is  another  set  of  exercises 
that  I  shall  suggest  for  composition  work. 
"^      We   first  select   an   object   familiar   to   us   all,  and 
within  our  range   of   vision.     Once    again,  oral  work 
precedes  written  work ;   and  work  in  common   comes 
before  individual  effort.     The  object  chosen,  one  child 
and    another    is    asked    to    mention    a    characteristic.^' 
These  are  jotted  down.     Very  soon  the  truth  taught 
by  the  old  story  of  the  shield  with  its  gold  and  its 
silver  side  will  again  be  exemplified.     For  one  child, 
the   shield  will   be   yellow ;   for   another,  silvery.     A 
little  questioning  brings  out  the  fact  that  there  have  V 
been  different  points  of  view,  that  this  group  of  pupils  "^ 
caught  a  glimpse  of  something  quite  out  of  sight  for 
the    others ;    that,   moreover,  any   one   describing   any 
thing  should  stand  here  or  there,  on  this  side  or  on 
that,  should  carefully  select  the  place  from  which  to 
make  his  observations. 

We  will   try  again.     Shall  we   look   at   our   shield  / 
from  the  front  or   from  the  back?      Let  it   be  from 
the   front.      Then    follows   a   second    description,   but 

38 


DESCRIPTIONS.  39 

again  there  is  a  difference  in  the  classes  of  facts  con- 
tributed ;  for  those  who  sit  at  a  distance,  there  have  ♦^ 
been  color  and  general  outline,  while  those  near  by- 
have  discovered  details  of  the  design.  Why  is  this? 
The  children  themselves  will  tell.  And  then  they 
will  have  learned  experimentally  that  the  point  of  "^ 
view  —  which  means  not  only  where,  but  also  how 
far  off,  we  are  —  determines  the  relative  dimensions  \ 
and  details  of  our  description;  that  it  is  one  thing  to 
describe  a  river  from  its  bank,  and  another  to  picture 
it  from  a  mountain-top ;  that  to  one  near  by  it  may 
be  a  noisy  torrent  plunging  over  hidden  rocks,  or  a 
singing  stream,  sunny  and  serene ;  while  from  the 
mountain-top  it  is  only  a  shining  thread  binding  the 
fields  of  grain  together,  or,  as  Lowell  says,  "  a  jewelled 
arm  clasping  cloudy  heaps  of  forest." 

It  is  a  sort  of  surprise  and  a  corresponding  delight 
to  come  upon  these  facts,  and  so  to  realize  that  there 
is  law  and  order  in  the  world  of  composition ;  and  it 
will  be  pure  joy  to  make  use  of  the  facts.  We  will 
keep  the  work  largely  oral  and  common  to  botli  class 
and  teacher  as  long  as  need  be.  Perliaps  a  tree  is 
easily  accessible.  If  so,  we  will  sketch  that  together 
as  we  see  it  from  the  window,  and  again  as  it  looks 
to  us  when  we  stand  under  its  branches.  For  the 
wet  l)lack  trunk  and  mass  of  shining  foliage  tliat  we 
describe  as  wo  look  at  the  tree  from  our  window,  we 
substitute   details   ius  we  stand   undci-  its   boughs  :  the 


40  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

roughness  or  smoothness  of  the  bark,  the  peculiar 
branching  of  the  tree,  the  shape  of  its  leaves,  even 
the  life  upon  it  —  surely  insect  life,  and  perhaps  we 
may  be  fortunate  enough  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  birds 
or  squirrels  that  make  it  their  haunt  or  home.  Our 
descriptions  shall  be  short,  and  they  sliall  be  the 
children's ;  we  will  be  satisfied  with  a  little  original, 
genuine,  intelligent  work. 

After  some  time  and  a  good  deal  of  practice,  there 

will   come   a   day  when   it  will   be   right   to   ask   for 

individual  description.     Why  not  have  this  almost  a 

game?     "Now,  don't  tell  anybody  but  me  what  you 

^  are  going  to  write  about.     Choose  something   in  the 

room,  and  keep  it  just   as   secret   as   can   be.     Then, 

/  after  everybody  has  done  two  or  three  lines,  we  will 

'   read    your    paragraphs    and    guess   what    each   one   is 

^  meant  for."     The  clock,  with  its  face  and  hands,  its 

figures  and  case,  would  be  suggestive. 

Tills,  of  course,  will  be  no  time  for  the  teacher  to 
stand  aloof;  it  is  a  critical  hour,  and  she  will  move 
round  among  the  writers,  holding  whispered  consulta- 
tions with  them ;  for  each  one  must  accomplish,  with 
some  degree  of  satisfaction  to  himself,  what  he  has 
attempted.  There  must  be  no  complete  failure  for 
any  one. 

This  set  of  exercises,  descriptions,  should,  like  letter- 
writing,  extend  over  a  period  of  years,  and  become 
more  and  more  skilful.     Even  older  pupils  will  now 


DESCBIPTIONS.  41 

and  then  enjoy  this  guessing-game.  They  will,  how- 
ever, make  the  solving  of  their  problems  a  less  easy 
matter.  The  clock,  for  instance,  may  be  personified,  ^ 
and,  if  a  dainty  one,  may  become  a  lady  discovered 
peeping  inquisitively  through  her  window,  and  hold- 
ing her  hands  before  her  face,  abashed;  or,  if  the  clock 
be  plain  and  prim,  up  may  go  its  hands  to  shut  out 
the  sight  of  school-room  pranks. 

While  in  this  earliest  work  there  may,  perhaps,  be 
no  occasion  to  speak  of  local  coloring,   and  while  it  '^ 
may  be  wise  not  to  touch  upon  the  necessity  for  out-  *^ 
lining,  for  using  economy  in  details,  for  choosing  only' 
those  features  most  characteristic  of  an  object,  I  should 
surely  teach  the  value  of  onomatopoetic  words  —  words 
that  by  their  sound  tell  their  meaning.     The  fact  that 
these  words  are  of    value  will,  after   all,  require   no 
teaching;  it  will  need  only  emphasizing,  for  children 
know  it  of  themselves.     If  they  are  telling  of  some- 7^ 
thing  huge,   they  will  unwittingly  try  to  make  their ) 
description  sound  huge.     If  they  say  only,  "  It  was  so 
big !  "  they  will  make  over  that  bir/,  by  elocutionary 
means,  into  a  hu^jfe  or  a  monstrous  ;  they  will  make  it 
liold,  and  carry,  their  meaning.     And  is  not  that  ono- 
matopreia  ?     Does  not  Browning  do  the  same  thing,  — 
thougli  he  does  more,  too,  —  and  does  lie  not  mean  to 
do   tlie  same   tiling,   when   he   writes   of   the   ivy  that 
"  winks    through   the   (flunks,"   and   of  the  sheep   that 
"  tinkle  homeward  "  ?     Artists  have  been  children. 


42  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

Almost  any  class,  be  they  novices  or  adepts,  will 
enjoy  practice  in  the  use  of  these  imitative  words. 
Here  are  several  original  uncorrected  paragraphs.  The 
requirement  was :  "  Write  a  paragraph  in  which  you 
try  to  use  imitative  words  —  words  that  by  their  sound 
convey  their  meaning.  Be  wise  in  selecting  a  subject. 
'  Early  Morning  at  the  Farm,'  and  '  A  Busy  Street '  are 
suggestive,  but  you  will  think  of  better  ones.  After 
finishing,  look  over  your  work,  substitute  for  general 
words  those  more  specific,  descriptive,  or  imitative, 
and  cut  out  any  word  or  expression  that  is  doing 
nothing  for  you."  These  are  several  of  the  paragraphs 
written  in  class,  without  preparation,  altogether  unex- 
pectedly :  — 

1.    The  Eace. 

First,  the  flutter  of  the  starter's  flag,  a  few  sharp  cracks 
of  the  whip,  and,  in  a  cloud  of  dust,  a  dash  of  color  flies 
past  you.  'Up  the  track  like  a  whirlwind  speeds  that 
streak  of  dust,  round  the  turn,  rushing  down  the  home- 
stretch; the  jockeys  yelling  at  their  horses,  and  the 
crowd  madly  calling  out  the  names  of  favorites.  The 
horses  dash  under  the  wire,  three  so  close  together  that 
no  one  can  tell  which  wins. 

2.    (Without  a  Title.) 

The  roaring  fire  wrenches  piece  after  piece  from  the 
burning  building,  and,  whirling  them  round  and  round 
with  a  crack  of  the  golden  tongues,  sends  them  flying 
into  the  calmer  air  above.     The  hissing  and  seething  of 


DESCRIPTIONS.  43 

the  flames,  the  crash  of  falling  timbers,  the  shouts  of 
frenzied  men  mingled  with  the  bellowing  of  the  engines, 
the  thrill  of  horror,  the  tranquil  heavens  above  the  war- 
ring earth,  the  grandeur  of  a  conflagration,  —  who  can 
forget  the  picture  ? 

3.    Sunrise  osr  a  Spring  Morning  at  a  Farm. 

A  faint  glow  in  the  east,  tinting  the  few  scattered 
clouds  with  a  delicate  pink,  heralds  the  morning  sun. 
The  slam  of  a  kitchen  door,  a  cheery  whistle,  and  the 
squeak  of  a  pump-handle  indicate  that  the  day's  chores 
have  begun.  The  rattling  of  a  barn-door,  the  "co-boss," 
the  snap  of  a  whip,  and  the  tinkling  of  bells  tell  that 
the  cows  are  being  pastured.  The  sun  rises,  the  air 
grows  warm,  the  locust  begins  to  sing,  and  the  farmer 
takes  his  plough  to  begin   his  day's   work. 

4.  Lost  on  a  Raft. 

Two  children  played  on  a  broken  raft  of  rotten  wood. 
They  chattered  merrily,  while  around  them  the  waves 
lapped  the  sandy  beach.  The  raft  was  fastened  to  a  pile 
by  a  rope  sawn  almost  in  two  from  its  constant  contact 
with  the  wood,  while  the  waves  swung  it  to  and  fro. 
The  stillness  was  broken  only  by  the  prattle  of  the  chil- 
dren and  the  roar  and  swish  of  the  waves.  Suddenly  a 
creak,  then  a  jerk  !  and  tlic  raft  floated  slowly  out  to 
sea.  At  first  the  novelty  of  tlie  situation  kept  both 
from  realizing  their  position;  but  before  they  had  drifted 
far  the  boy  screamed  lustily,  wliilf  llio  i,'iil  cried  hot 
tears    into   hor  drenched   nprou. 


44  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

Who  will  not  grant  that  beginners  should  not  be 
expected  to  grow  if  nourished  on  skimmed  milk ;  that 
they  need  the  fruit,  not  its  husk ;  that  the  difference 
between  them  and  maturer  pupils  is  this :  beginners 
^  should  not  be  troubled  with  too  much  analysis,  but 
should  do,  and  do,  and  do ;  if  the  simpler  things,  yet 
the  interesting  things,  the  wonderful  things,  gradually 
rounding  out  their  course  with  the  years,  doing  work 
that  becomes  more  and  more  skilful  and  scholarly? 

Can  it  be  necessary  to  suggest  that  work  in  descrip- 
tion, from  first  to  last,  be  connected  in  thought  with 
the  painting  of  pictures?  While  at  the  very  beginning 
we  are  discussing  point  of  view  and  scale  of  descrip- 
tion, —  although  probably  we  have  used  simpler  terms, 
—  it  will  be  easy  to  ask,  "  What  other  class  of  workers 
are  equally  careful  about  such  things  ? "  And,  no 
doubt,  some  one  will  say,  "Painters!"  or,  it  may  be, 
"  People  that  take  photographs  !  "  "  Sure  enough. 
Do  you  know  that  some  wonderful  writers  are  said 
to  paint  with  words  ?  I  wonder  how  they  get  their 
colors  ? "  If  no  one  suggests,  you  can  afford  to  let 
the  question  wait  for  its  answer.  Later,  when  to- 
gether you  are  reading  some  word-painting  by  a  mas- 
ter hand,  —  sometliing  that  has  in  it  the  rosy  wonder 
of  the  dawn,  the  green  beauty  of  the  heaving  sea, 
or  the  white  splendor  of  sun-swept  snowy  hills  and 
fields,  —  the  answer  will  come. 

It  seems  to  me  that  these  little  word-painters  should 


DESCRIPTIONS.  45 

be  as  happily  hnsj  during  their  English  lessons  as 
they  usually  are  when  at  work  with  brush  and  colors. 
Surely,  the  results  in  one  case  may  be  as  promising 
as  in  the  other,  provided  that  we  are  wise,  and  ask  for 
only  the  possible. 

It  helps  the  children  even  to  call  them  word-painters ; 
they  are  then  keenly  alive  to  what  they  are  attempting : 
"Come,  little  word-painters,  are  your  brushes  ready? 
Shall  we  get  out  our  colors?  But  how  can  we  until 
we  know  what  we  are  going  to  paint  ? "  We  ought 
to  be  of  service  in  selecting  a  good  subject.  Some- 
thing suggestive  of  picturesque  language  almost  writes 
itself.  Wliat  a  wealth  of  topics  comes  to  mind  for  the 
country  child.  But  even  the  city  boy  and  girl  have 
their  glimpses  of  green  grass  and  blue  sky,  of  sunset 
flushes  and  of  shining  river.  Even  they,  bless  their 
hearts!  have  a  black  cat  Avith  yellow  eyes  and  white 
velvety  paws,  or  a  snowy  one,  or  a  tawny  one. 

While  they  themselves  are  writing,  we  shall,  of 
course,  introduce  our  class  to  the  fine  things  that  the 
years  have  been  sifting  out  for  tlicm.  Great  minds 
are  childlike,  and  tlio  creations  of  tlicir  wisdom  and 
genius  liold  many  things  for  little  people.  These, 
selected,  make  for  the  children  a  long  panorama  of 
delight.  It  unrolls  foi-  them  pictui'cs  of  jolly  Dnlch- 
m»;n  ami  sfciii  ['uritans,  of  niuilcd  knight,  and  aichcr 
in  Lincoln  green,  of  fJicck  anil  Tidjan  heroes,  of 
magic,  haunted  wood.      The    panorama   is   endless;    it 


46  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

will  unroll  as  long  as  we  can  look  —  with  our  ears. 
What  child  will  not  appreciate  the  pictures  in  Snow- 
bound, —  the  happy  fireside  group,  each  member  of  it ; 
the  "whirl-dance  of  the  blinding  storm;"  and,  next 
day,  the  beautiful  new  world,  the  universe  of  sky  and 
snow,  —  snow  that  puts  a  fantastic  hat  upon  the  bridle- 
post,  and  gives  a  Chinese  roof  to  the  well-curb?  And, 
after  two  or  three  years  of  work,  perhaps,  will  they 
not  like  to  go  sight-seeing,  picture-hunting,  in  Little 
''  Britain  ?  Yes :  they  will  enjoy  all  this  literature 
work  if  we  are  wise  and  watchful,  if  we  cut  short 
details,  and  even  throw  aside  what  the  world  honors, 
provided  it  does  not  appeal  to  this  little  handful  of 
humanity  just  now. 

They  will  like  some  things  well  enough  to  learn 
and  remember  them  easily.  Shall  we  give  them  the 
reins  once  in  a  while,  especially  at  first,  and  let  them 
choose  their  own  course  —  what  they  will  learn, 
what  one  or  more  of  the  stanzas  or  paragraphs  read 
together  ? 

Many  a  little  gardener  that  knows  the  shapes  of  his 
flowers  will  appreciate  Keats's  :  — 

"  Open  afresh  your  round  of  starry  folds, 
Ye  ardent  marigolds  ! 
Dry  up  the  moisture  from  your  golden  lids  ;" 

and  the  fortunate  child  that  has  stretched  out  among 
the  grasses  and  clover  will  remember  it  all  as  he 
memorizes  Lanier's :  — 


DESCRIPTIONS.  47 

"  Now  the  little  winds,  as  bees, 
Bowing  the  blooms,  come  wandering  where  I  lie." 

Some  there  are  who  will  like  tlie  smell  of  powder 
aud  the  shock   of   armies   in   Victor   Hugo's  "  Water-  ^ 
loo ;"  or,  it  may  be,  the  Sir  Galahad  of  Teuuyson  will    "^ 
touch  them,  aud  the  poet's  onomatopoetic  words  will 
appeal  to  their  ears  as  the  kuight's  chivalry  appeals  to 
their  hearts. 

The  combined  narration  aud  description  in  the  Song  X 
of  the  Chattahoochee  will  catch  the  fancy,  aud  train  ear 
and  mind  as  well,  while    the  class  learn  what  would 
make  the  Chattahoochee  tarry  on  its  way :  — 

"The  wilful  waterweeds  held  me  thrall," 

sings  the  river, 

"  The  laving  laurel  turned  my  tide, 

The  ferns  and  the  fondling  grass  said,  Staij, 

The  dewberry  dipped  for  to  work  delay. 
And  the  little  reeds  sighed.  Abide,  abide." 

Both  the  practical  aud  the  poetic  will  be  interested 
in  Scott's  description  of  Koljiu  Hood  aud  in  Hugo's  of 
Napoleon. 

The  very  practical  may  fancy:  — 

"The  cart-chain  clinks  across  the  slanting  shafts, 
An<l  kitchciiwani  tlie  rattling  bucket  pluMijis  — 
Souse  down  tlic  well,  where  quivering  ducks  quack  loud, 
And  Susan  Cook  is  singing;" 

whicli  is  full  of  words  that  adapt  sound  to  sense,  aud 
which  will  be  as  a  stepping-stone  to  higher  things. 


48  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

Is  there  a  boy  or  girl  that  will  turn  away  from  the 
following  ?  — 

"  I  was  rich  in  flowers  and  trees, 
Humming-birds  and  honey-bees  ; 
For  my  sport  the  squirrel  played, 
Plied  the  snouted  mole  his  spade  ; 
For  my  taste  the  blackberry  cone 
Purpled  over  hedge  and  stone  ; 
Laughed  the  brook  for  my  delight 
Through  the  day  and  through  the  night." 

What  if  the  child  with  slowly-awakening  mind 
choose  a  material  theme?  So  much  the  better  for 
him,  if  this  means  something  to  him  and  the  others 
nothing.  He  will  grow,  but  neither  by  abstaining 
altogether  nor  by  taking  indigestible  food.  Next  time, 
or  some  time,  he  will  crave  something  finer ;  the  other 
children,  with  their  selections,  may  have  helped  him. 
And  this  occasional  freedom  of  choice  exercised  by 
the  pupil  will  give  the  teacher  an  insight  into  his 
nature,  especially  if  he  tells  why  the  selection  ap- 
pealed to  him,  why  he  chose  it,  what  he  likes  in  it: 
she  may  learn  something  of  his  aspirations,  or  of  his 
lack  of  them ;  she  will  have,  too,  a  new  way  of  noting 
his  mental  and  moral  progress. 

Scrap-books,  during  this  second  set  of  exercises,  will 
grow  apace.  Pictures  of  town  or  country,  of  highway 
or  byway,  of  familiar  or  historic  figures,  will  be  pasted 
in  ;  and  under  them  descriptions  of  similar  scenes  or 
personages,  —  perhaps,  happily,  of  the  same,  —  descrip- 


DESCEIPTIO^rS.  49 

tions  by  those  who  knew  them  and  loved  them,  and 
knew  how  to  write  about  them.  Side  by  side  with 
these  might  be  anecdotes  of  writers.  Boys  might  like 
Keats  better  if  they  knew  what  a  fighter  —  for  the 
right  —  he  was,  and  that  everybody  thought  he  was 
going  to  be  a  soldier,  —  this  poet  of  marvellous  power. 
They  would  appreciate  his  standing  guard  with  an  old 
sword  at  his  mother's  door,  lest  any  one  should  dis- 
turb her  needed  rest,  all  about  which  Kenyon  West  v 
tells  in  his  charming  article  for  young  people.  They 
might  have  an  added  fondness  for  Scott,  if  they  had 
learned  about  his  love  for  animals,  and  how  when  his 
favorite,  Camp,  died,  he  declined  an  invitation  to 
dinner  "on  account  of  the  death  of  an  old  friend." 

Is  there  not  material  enough,  even  if  we  confine 
ourselves  to  that  herein  considered,  for  our  fourth  set 
of  exercises  ? 

I.  We  have  tried  to  make  the  picture  of  something. 
In  so  doing,  we  have  learned :  — 

1.  That  we  must  have  and  keep  a  point  of  view. 

2.  That  our  [»oint  of  view  will  determine  for  us  many 

things  :   relative  dimensions,  details,  etc. 

3.  That  words  expressing  our  meaning  in  their  sound 

will  holp  us. 

II.  We  have,  tlierefore,  learned  that  law  and  order 
rule  in  the  comjiosition  world  as  in  tlio  natural  world. 

III.  Wc  have  found  that  there  are  food  values  to 
be  recognized  in  the  teaching  of  composition,  and  tliat 


50  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

the  assimilation,  as  well  as  the  provision,  of   food  is 
essential. 

IV.  We  have  read  together  fine  descriptions,  being 
mindful  of  their  authors,  and  so  have  added  to  our  list 
of  book  friends. 

V.  We  have,  to  a  degree,  made  their  occasional  un- 
guided  choice  of  selections  to  be  memorized  an  open 
sesame  to  the  nature  of  our  pupils,  as  well  as  a  means 
of  registering  growth. 

VI.  We  have  noted  the  kinship  of  writing  and  draw- 
ing—  painting,  sculpture;  and  our  work  in  literature 
has  doubtless  given  opportunity  to  unify  the  study  of 
composition  with  that  of  history  and  of  geography,  as 
we  have  described  persons  and  places. 

VII.  We  have  continued  to  recognize  the  whole  prov- 
ince of  composition,  teaching  it  by  means  of  both  oral 
and  written  exercises. 

VIII.  We  have  embodied  in  a  scrap-book  something 
of  our  work. 

IX.  We  have,  above  all,  created  a  genial  atmosphere, 
in  which  growing  minds  and  hearts  and  souls  could 
expand,  opening  out  into  life  and  upward  toward  the 
light. 

Note.  — We  shall,  of  course,  seek  to  obtain  descriptions  that  will 
appeal  to  our  class  through  the  senses  of  hearing,  touch,  taste,  and 
smell,  as  well  as  those  which  call  up  visions. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    SIMILE    AND    PERSONIFICATION. 

"As  some  tall  cliff  that  lifts  its  awful  form, 

Swells  from  the  vale,  and  midway  leaves  the  storm, 
Tho'  round  its  breast  the  rolling  clouds  are  spread 
Eternal  sunshine  settles  on  its  head." 

Is  it  a  very  long  step  downward  from  this  simile 
of  Goldsmith's  to  "Tom  runs  like  a  fire-engine," 
or  "  That  pond-lily  bud  looks  like  one  of  grandma's 
pickles,"  as  a  very  little  boy  said  last  summer  ? 
Assuredly  not ;  a  long  series  of  steps  leads  from  the 
boy's  figures  to  that  of  the  poet;  but  the  same  prin- 
ciple of  construction  underlies  the  three,  and  their 
purpose  is  identical.  Boy  and  poet  have,  more  or 
less  intentionally,  illustrated  the  thought  by  a  kind '/ 
of  picture,  and  l)oth  liave  bound  thought  and  picture^ 
together  by  a  word  of  comparison.  Goldsmith's  pic- 
ture is  that  of  the  master,  clear  and  strong,  artisti- 
cally conceived  and  executed  ;  Init  tlie  boy's  pictures 
are  as  truly  spontaneous,  and,  although  crude,  clearly 
illustrate  how  swiftly  Tom  can  run  and  what  the 
shape  of  the  closed  pond-lily  is. 

Everybody  knows  that  children  are  forever  noting 
resemblances  and  differences  ;    shall   we,  then,  be  un- 

61 


52  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

wise  to  try  some  very  elementary  work  with  figures 
for  a  fifth  set  of  exercises  ?  Genung  says  :  "  The  fact 
,  that  figurative  language  deviates  from  ordinary  ex- 
pression is  not  to  be  taken  as  an  argument  against 
its  naturalness.  It  is  just  as  spontaneous  and  artless 
in  its  place  as  any  manner  of  speaking  for  cultured 
and  uncultured  alike." 

For  some  time  our  work  will  naturally  be  oral, 
and  done  together,  and  will  be  confined  to  two  fig- 
ures  —  the  simile  and  personification.  At  first  we 
shall  simply  read  aloud  simile  after  simile ;  but  we 
shall  talk  about  each  one,  and  we  shall  discover  for 
ourselves  truths  that  rhetoricians  learned  long  ago. 
Our  discoveries  will  be  made  through  the  curiosity 
of  the  children,  which  psychologists  declare  to  be  a 
legitimate  and  most  useful  aid  to  the  educator.  Per- 
tinent questions  will  set  minds  agog,  and,  sooner  or 
later,  the  class  will  evolve  their  page  of  rhetoric. 

First  of  all,  they  will  become  convinced  that  the 
office  of  the  simile  is  to  illustrate,  to  make  a  picture, 
•^  of  their  thoughts.  They  will  realize  that  the  thought  «/ 
is  of  prime  importance,  and  that  the  simile  merely 
re-presents  what  has  already  been  expressed ;  but  that 
it  does  this  in  a  new  way,  figuratively. 

"I  found  the  Battery  unoccupied,  save  by  children, 
whom  the  weather  made  as  merry  as  birds,"  gives  a 
tolerably  clear  notion  of  the  mood  of  the  little  people 
on  the  Battery ;  and,  were  our  own  little  people  from 


THE  SIMILE  AND  PEBSONIFICATION.  63 

the   kindergarten,   they   would   become   birds   for   the 
time  being,  to  illustrate  for  us  the  illustration. 

"  Patter  —  patter  — 
Listen  how  the  raindrops  clatter, 
Falling  on  the  shingle  roof; 

How  they  rattle 
Like  the  rifles'  click  in  battle, 
Or  the  charger's  iron  hoof  ! " 

The  children  will  find  this  a  representation  —  a  pic- 
ture —  of  sound. 

There  is  an  appeal  to  eyes  rather  than  to  ears  in 
tlie  following:  — 

"  Many  a  night  I  saw  the  Pleiads,  rising  through  the  mellow  shade, 
Glitter  like  a  swarm  of  fireflies  tangled  in  a  silver  braid." 

It  will  not  be  difficult  for  our  class  to  realize  that 
these  pictures  are  not   photographs  of  children,  rain- 
drops, and  stars,   but  of   the  merriment   of   the   chil-*^ 
dren,  of  the  patter  and    clatter  of   the  raindrops,  and  ^ 
of   tlie  glitter  of   the   stars ;    that   cliildren    are    quite 
unlike  birds   in  very  many  ways ;    that  raindrops   by 
no  means  reseinble   rifles  and  horses'  hoofs  ;  and  that 
stars  liave  not  the  heads,  nor  tlie  wings,  nor  the  mo- 
tion   of    fireflies.     So,   after   a   while,    they   will    come 
to  see,   that  it  is   one    point   of   rcscmbhince  common  v 
to  two  otherwise  unlike  tilings  that  we  seize  \x\)on  for 
our   simile.     Tlie    child   that  said,   "  Tom   runs  like  a 
fire-engine,"    did    not    f(;r   a    miiinte    think    that    Tom 
and  fire-engines    had    much  in  common    except   swift- 


64  ELEMENTABY  COMPOSITION. 

ness  of  motion;  and  the  little  boy  that  noted  the 
resemblance  in  coloring  and  shape  of  his  closed  pond- 
lily  to  a  small  rounded  pickle,  discovered  that  simi- 
larity alone.  ^ 

As  time  goes  on,  and  their  acquaintance  with  similes 
grows,  the  class  may  be  led  to  see  that  surprise  has^ 
a  good  deal  to  do  with  our  enjoyment  of  them  ;  that 
we  laugh  most  heartily  over  the  humor  of  one  be- 
cause it  greets  us  unexpectedly,  and  that  the  beauty 
of  another  especially  satisfies  because  unlooked-for, 
just  as  the  flower  that  smiles  up  at  us,  as,  unawares, 
we  are  about  to  crush  it,  seems  sweeter  for  its  escape 
and  for  the  surprise  of  its  presence.  It  follows  that 
a  comparison  of  man  to  man,  of  beast  to  beast,  of 
flower  to  flower,  —  in  short,  a  comparison  between 
the  members  of  a  class,  — will  not  be  a  simile. 

Pupils  will   enjoy  finding  these   expressed  compari- 
sons in  many  of  Longfellow's  poems ;  as,  for  instance, 
•^    in   The   Ckildren's  Rour,  in   TJie    Village  Blacksmith,  in 
Haiti  in  Summer;  and  they  will  feel  the  beauty  and 
the  vigor  of  these  and  others  from  Revelation  :  — 

1.  "  And  the  stars  joi  heaven  fell  unto  the  earth,  even 

as  a  fig-tree  casteth  her  untimely  figs,  when  she 
is  shaken  of  a  mighty  wind." 

2.  "  And  there  fell  a  star  from  heaven,  burning  as  it 

were  a  lamp." 

3.  "  And  the  sound  of  their  wings  was  as  the  sound 

of  chariots  of  many  horses   running  to  battle." 


THE  SIMILE  AND  PERSONIFICATION.  55 

Shall  we  end  our  work  here?  Shall  we  be  content 
with  enjoyment  of  what  others  have  done,  with  drink- 
ing in  beauty?  I  have  just  read,  in  a  inuch-prized 
text-book  written  by  a  man  of  ripe  experience,  the 
following :  "  Figures  have  been  defined  and  illustrated, 
not  with  a  view  to  giving  the  student  something  new 
to  put  into  his  writing ;  for  the  charm  of  any  produc- 
tion would  be  entirely  lost  if  the  writer  should  feel 
that,  having  just  finished  a  chapter  on  figures  of  speech, 
he  must  keep  on  the  lookout  for  a  chance  to  put  in 
a  simile,  or  ask  himself  what  would  be  a  good  meta- 
phor for  this  thought,  or  how  this  idea  could  be  best 
personified." 

Nevertheless,  I  should  surely  aid  the  children  to 
put  into  use  what  they  had  learned  about  the  simile. 
Benjamin  Franklin's  verses  helped  him,  though  he 
called  them  trash;  and  I  believe  that  the  making  of 
similes  will  help  a  class,  at  least  in  closeness  of  obser- 
vation, as  they  mark  likenesses  and  differences ;  and 
observation  comes  within  the  province  of  tlio  most 
elementary  instruction.  Moreover,  genuine  artistic 
power,  if  it  exists,  is  likely  to  bo  developed.  So  it 
would  not  be  unwise,  I  think,  to  encourage  a  class  to 
make  similes,  sftincwliat  after  this  fasliion,  perhaps: 
"Wlieiiever  you  are  writing  a  letter,  or  a  description, 
or  anything,  you  may  have  a  chance  to  use  a  simile  in 
tlie  right  way.  Perhaps  you  will  be  telling  of  some- 
thing unfamiliai-  to  tlio  one  who  is  to  read  your  letter 


66  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION: 

or  description.  You  may  be  writing  about  a  new  pupil 
whom  you  like  ever  so  much,  but  who  has  a  funny 
way  of  shaking  hands.  You  are  puzzled  enough  to 
think  how  to  describe  that  hand-shake.  All  at  once 
you  seem  to  see  an  old  pump  that  your  correspondent 
and  you  used  to  play  round,  and  there  you  have  your 
simile :  '  When  he  shakes  hands,  his  arm  goes  up  and 
down  just  like  the  handle  of  that  old  pump  in  Jack 
Smith's  yard.'  Or  it  may  be  that  one  of  you  girls  is 
writing  to  a  friend,  and  is  telling  how  sweet  and 
fresh  your  little  bit  of  a  sister  looks,  but  she  is  so 
rosy  and  lovely  that  you  cannot  think  how  to  tell 
it ;  then  suddenly,  perhaps  just  because  your  thoughts 
are  of  things  sweet  and  fresh,  you  seem  to  be  picking 
cherry  blossoms  again,  and  there  is  ^our  simile :  '  She 
is  as  pink-and-white  and  sweet  as  the  blossoms  on  the 
tree  by  our  gate.' " 

Let  me  give  several  original  figures.  The  first  is 
taken  from  a  familiar  letter,  and  was  written  by  a 
girl  just  from  the  grammar  school :  — 

'  1.  "  We  used  to  bring  up  an  umbrella  and  a  book,  the 
former  to  keep  the  sun  off,  and  the  latter  to 
read  when  we  got  tired  watching  the  river 
plunge  headlong,  and  of  seeing  the  mountains 
frown  gloomily  at  the  happy  little  hills.  These 
were  continually  waving  their  flags  of  apple  and 
peach  blossoms  in  joy  at  the  approach  of  sum- 
mer.    But  the  trouble  was,  that,  as  we  would  get 


TEE  SIMILE  AND   PERSONIFICATION.  67 

very  much  interested  in  our  book,  along  would 
come  the  wind  and  say,  '  Come,  little  umbrella, 
and  have  some  fun ! '  and  then  the  umbrella 
would  fly  over  the  railing  down  into  the  yard ; 
and  either  Beth  or  I  would  have  to  go  down  five 
flights  of  stairs  to  get  it." 

2.  "  The    windows   that   we    make   now    are  like  eyes 

without  lids." 

3.  The  third  was  so  spontaneous  that  its  five-year-old 

author  was  unconscious  of  his  figure :  "  Where  is 
my  magazine's  little  coat  ? "  referring  to  its 
brown-paper  envelope. 

4.  The  same  boy  exclaimed,  on  glancing  at  some  shelves 

that  held  pamphlets,  as  well  as  books  substantially 
bound,  "  Why  do  you  put  your  thick-skinned  books 
on  one  shelf,  and  your  thin-skinned  ones  on  an- 
other ?  " 

5.  While  watching  bonfires  spread,  a  little  child  cried 

out,  "  See  them  root ! "  He  added  later,  "  They 
look  like  a  string  of  jewels." 

Must  we  prove  it  riglit  to  teach  personification  to 
children  ?  Ratlier  let  us  prove  that  they  might  teach 
it  to  us. 

Wise  men  say  that  a  child  typifies  in  his  growth 
the  growth  or  development  of  a  race.  The  Greeks, 
for  example,  in  the  childhood  of  their  race  personified 
all  things  in  nature.  For  tliera  the  trees  liad  tongues; 
for  them  the  sun,  tlio  winds,  llie  sea,  had  a  life  like 
their  own.     The  river  flowed  because  it  willed  to  flow; 


58  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

the  sun  rose  because  it  willed  to  rise;  the  sea  beat 
fiercely  against  the  shore  because  it  was  angry  with 
a  human  anger,  or  broke  into  smiles  because  of  its 
good-will ;  and  flowers  wished  to  poison,  or  to  heal, 
or  to  gladden. 

As  a  race  in  its  childhood,  so  is  a  child.  He 
looks  on  the  world  around  him  with  believing  won- 
der :  the  wind  whispers  to  him ;  the  stars  wink  at 
him ;  the  little  waves  actually  chase  him  and  try  to 
give  his  feet  a  wetting ;  the  slippery  rocks  mean  to 
trip  him ;  the  flowers  nod,  and  the  brooks  sing.  Your 
story  of  wood  or  shore  is  no  story  for  a  child  if  your 
bears  cannot  talk,  if  your  brooks  cannot  carry  mes- 
sages ;  if  you  do  not  bestow  human  powers  upon 
plant  and  animal;  if,  in  short,  you  do  not  per- 
sonify. 

You  will  remember  that  Tennyson  writes  in  an 
idyl :  — 

" '  O  babbling  brook,'  says  Edmund  in  his  rhyme, 
'  whence  come  you  ? '  and  the  brook,  why  not  ?  re- 
plies." The  poet  is  not  less,  nor  more,  imaginative 
than  the  child;  "Why  should  not  the  brook  reply?" 
he  asks,  and  expects  no  answer  to  his  query. 

One  might  teach  personification  with  only  Tenny- 
son's idyl  for  an  illustration.  What  stanzas  will  the 
children  enjoy  best?  One  that  has  leaned  from  a 
little  bridge  to  watch  a  hurrying  stream  ma,j  choose 
for  his  stanza  :  — 


THE  SIMILE  AND  PERSONIFICATION.  69 

"By  thirty  hills  I  hurry  down, 
Or  slip  between  the  ridges, 
By  twenty  thorps,  a  little  town. 
And  half  a  hundred  bridges. 

If  another  has  waded  barefoot  over  pebbles,  with  the 
water  bubbling  over  his  toes,  he  will,  perhaps,  espe- 
cially enjoy :  — 

"  I  chatter  over  stony  ways, 
In  little  sharps  and  trebles, 
I  bubble  into  eddying  bays, 
I  babble  on  the  pebbles." 

If  another  has  sailed  leaves  and  blossoms  down  his 
brook,  he  may  best  like :  — 

"I  wind  about,  and  in  and  out. 
With  here  a  blossom  sailing, 
And  liere  and  there  a  lusty  trout, 
And  here  and  there  a  grayling." 

It  may  be  that  our  pupils  will  have  their  own  ex- 
amples of  personification  to  contribute.  It  would  not 
be  strange,  for  instance,  if  some  one  knew  the  lul- 
laby in   The  Princess. 

This  work  in  figures  will  be  play  as  well ;  but  we 
have  the  word  of  Conipayr6  and  others  wlio  liavo 
studied  the  mind,  that  "  we  should,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, eliminate  from  instruction  its  asperities  and  use- 
less rigors,  and  render  it  in  some  measure  attractive." 
Moreover,  the  study  of  figures  has  a  charm  all  its 
own. 


60  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

We  will  not,  however,  let  the  pendulum  swing  too 
far  toward  the  side  of  mere  pleasure.  There  shall 
be  effort  too ;  otherwise,  these  same  psychologists 
might  take  issue  with  us.  Gradually,  we  will  choose 
examples  of  personification  that  it  will  require  some 
thought  to  explain.  This  from  I7ie  Lotus-Waters, 
for  instance,  would  be  less  simple  than  the  brook's 
song :  — 

"  And  thro'  the  moss  the  ivies  creep, 
And  in  the  stream  the  long-leaved  flowers  weep, 
And  from  the  craggy  ledge  the  poppy  hangs  in  sleep." 

This  work  will,  of  course,  make  use  of  literature 
all  the  time.  Our  care  will  be  to  choose  wisely  just 
what  is  adapted  to  the  needs  of  our  own  class.  It 
may  be  something  quite  simple,  like  Ruskin's  "  Here 
at  the  fruiterer's,  where  the  dark-green  watermelons 
are  heaped  upon  the  counter  like  cannon-balls;"  or 
it  may  be  something  more  difficult  to  grasp,  like 
Hawthorne's  "The  cold  regions  of  the  North,  almost 
within  the  gloom  and  shadow  of  the  Arctic  Cir- 
cle, sent  him  [Mr.  Gathergold]  their  tribute  in  the 
shape  of  furs;  hot  Africa  sifted  for  him  the  golden 
sands  of  her  rivers,  and  gathered  up  the  ivory  tusks 
of  her  great  elephants  out  of  the  forests ;  the  East 
came,  bringing  him  the  rich  shawls,  and  spices,  and 
teas,  and  the  effulgence  of  diamonds,  and  the  gleam- 
ing purity   of    large    pearls."      But,   whatever    it  is, 


TUE  SIMILE  AND   PERSONIFICATION.  61 

the    results    of    its   use    will    prove  —  they   must   not 
disprove  —  the  wisdom  of  our  choice. 

I  believe  that  scrap-book  work  in  connection  with 
the  study  of  figures  may  be  made  both  inviting  and 
helpful,  especially  in  the  case  of  similes.  The  line, 
or  sentence,  or  stanza  containing  the  simile  might  be 
copied  into  the  scrap-book,  and  beside  it  might  be 
put  a  picture  showing  the  value  of  the  figure.  For 
instance,  there  might  be  the  sentence  of  the  little 
girl  that  wrote  of  her  sister,  "She  is  as  sweet  as 
the  blossoms  on  the  tree  by  our  gate,"  and  a  picture 
of  a  branch  of  cherry  or  of  apple  blossoms  ;  or  there 
might  be  two  pictures,  as  of  a  boy  running  and  of 
a  fire-engine  dashing  along.  To  render  the  exercise 
not  only  pleasing  but  also  profitable  as  calling  out 
effort,  the  point  of  likeness  should  be  noted.  Under  ^ 
the  picture  of  Tom  and  that  of  the  fire-engine  might 
be  written,  "  Both  are  swift."  Under  the  branch  of 
blossoms  and  its  accompanying  sentence  might  be 
written,  "  Both  child  and  blossoms  have  sweetness 
and  pretty  coloring."  I  infer  from  experience  that 
puj)ils  will  be  able  to  find  jtictures  for  a  good  many 
similes.  TIk;  most  interesting  collection  under  per- 
sonification will  be  that  of  original  figures  contrib- 
uted by  the  class,  who  may  also  find  pictures  to  show 
"  w}iis|)eririg  trees,"  "proud  ships,"  and  other  personi- 
fied objects. 


62  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

S  UMMAR  Y. 

During  this  series  of  exercises,  — 
I.    We  shall  have  considered  :  — 

1.  The  naturalness  of  figures. 

2.  The  nature  of  the  simile  and  of  personification,  both 

of  which  lead  up  to  the  metaphor. 

II.    We  shall  have  found  :  — 

1.  That  the  office  of  the  simile  is  to  make  even  clearer 

our  statements,  which  should,  nevertheless,  have 
their  own  clearness. 

2.  That  the  simile  gives  clearness  by  making  a  picture, 

not  of  the  whole  thing  talked  about,  but  of  some 
one  or  more  of  its  properties  or  characteristics. 

3.  That  surprise    should  have  its  part   in   the   simile, 

and  that,  as  a  consequence,  the  comparison  of  one 
member  of  a  class  to  another  will  not  be  a  simile. 

III.  We  shall  have  learned  to  recognize  similes,  to  enjoy 

them,  and  to  make  them. 

IV.  We  shall  have  become  familiar  with  the  figure  per- 

sonification, also ;  and  in  the  study  of  both  figures 
we  shall  have  cultivated  the  power  of  accurate 
observation,  shall  have  given  pleasure,  and  shall 
have  required  effort  on  the  part  of  our  pupils. 
V.  We  shall  not  have  made  the  most  of  our  opportunities 
if  we  have  not  connected  this  series  of  exercises 
with  that  in  which  onomatopoetic  words  were 
considered  ;  for  in  quoted  examples  of  simile  and 
personification  will  have  occurred  many  words  car- 
rying their  meaning  in  their  sound. 


THE  SIMILE  AND  PERSONIFICATION.  63 

VI.  "We  shall  have  added  to  the  word-collection  —  to 
which  our  third  set  of  exercises  was  especially 
devoted,  but  which  was  to  have  no  end  —  the 
words  simile,  personification,  figure.  But  we  shall 
have  looked  up  the  exact  definition  and  the  deriva- 
tion of  these  words  after  we  have  become  familiar 
with  the  figures  themselves,  I  fancy. 

VII.  We  shall  have  profited  by  literature,  and  we  shall 
have  added  to  scrap-books. 

VIII.  And  we  shall  have  deepened  the  feeling  for  the 
beautiful,  "  the  sovereign  smile  of  God,  eternal 
loveliness." 


CHAPTER   VII 

FINDING   MUCH   IN    LITTLE:    ELABORATION    OF    SEN- 
TENCES   INTO    PARAGRAPHS. 

It  will  be  remarkable  if  the  work  thus  far  done 
has  shown  much  skill  in  elaboration.  The  observa- 
tions of  the  children  may  have  furnished  abundant 
material  for  composition,  but  the  expression  of  it  has 
been  difficult.  Probably  letters  have  been  abrupt,  de- 
scriptions inadequate,  and  stories  but  a  paragraph. 
This  abridged  kind  of  writing  is  far  better,  it  is  true, 
than  the  use  of  too  many  words ;  but  it  shows  that 
pupils  need  wisely-conducted  exercises  in  elaboration. 
I  think  of  none  more  helpful  in  improving  a  tongue- 
tied  condition  than  the  making  of  paragraphs  out  of 
sentences  that  actually  contain  material  for  paragraphs. 

By  this  time  we  shall  have  a  good  deal  of  original 
matter  on  file.  Let  us  refer  to  it,  and  choose  half  a 
dozen  sentences  that  are  kernels  of  paragraphs.  Sup- 
pose that  one  of  those  selected  is :  "  It  was  a  beautiful 
morning,"  this  statement  being  unsupported  by  detail. 
We  may  have  the  sentence  read  aloud,  and  then  ask: 

"A ,  how  do  you  imagine  that  morning,  as  warm 

or  cold?"  —  "Had  there  been  a  snow-storm  that  would 
make    good   sleighing,   or   was   there   a   stiff   summer 


ELABORATION   OF  SENTENCES.  65 

breeze    just   right   for   sailing?     What   do   you  think, 

B ?"      Answers    will    vary    as    tastes    differ,    one 

•  pupil  picturing  a  clear,  crisp  day  in  winter,  another  a 
warm  June  morning.  It  will  be  evident  that  the 
writer  has  left  his  reader  in  perplexity  with  reference 
to  every  thing  but  the  general  beauty  of  the  day. 
"We  may,  therefore,  let  the  class  guess  to  what  time 
of  the  year  allusion  is  made.  Suppose  they  fancy  it 
to  be  the  early  spring.  We  may  ask  for  suggestions 
as  to  what  goes  to  make  up  a  beautiful  morning  in  the 
early  spring.  Our  request  will  undoubtedly  excite 
effort,  and  call  into  action  both  rej^resentative  imagi- 
nation and  memory.  As  a  result,  we  shall  obtain 
data  enough.  Suppose  the  data  to  be :  a  soft  air,  a 
warm  sun,  swelling  buds,  crocuses  and  snowdrops  in 
gardens ;  and  suppose  this  list  to  have  been  written 
on  the  Ijlackboard.  Together  we  may  connect  the 
data  and  form  a  simple  paragraph,  perhaps  something 
like  this :  — 

"Tt  was  a  beautiful  day  in  the  early  spring,  with  a  soft 
air  and  a  warm  sun.  Buds  had  begun  to  swell  on  many 
of  the  trees,  and,  in  some  sunny  gardens,  crocuses  and 
snowdrops  were  up.  It  was  just  the  day  for  our  ride  v\) 
the  river." 

Next  hit  us  try  the  same  sentence  elaborated  to 
suit  an  antiiinn  d;u'.  I'hc  data  contributed  will  per- 
haps be  something  liiic  tlie  following:  bright  leaves. 


66  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

nuts  falling,  squirrels  on  the  walls,  children  in  the 
woods.  Together,  using  the  blackboard,  we  might 
make  our  autumn  paragraph :  — 

"  Red  and  gold  leaves  fell  softly  to  the  ground,  ripened 
nuts  dropped  with  a  little  thud,  frisky  squirrels  ran  along 
the  walls ;  it  was  a  beautiful  October  day,  and  we  were 
glad  to  be  out  in  its  sunshine." 

By  this  time,  very  likely,  the  class  will  wish  to  make 
a  summer  morning  and  a  winter  morning.  Or  perhaps 
they  will  choose  to  do  something  with  the  following: 
(1)  The  orchard  was  the  pleasantest  spot  on  the 
farm.  (2)  Boys  were  plajdng  leap-frog.  (3)  The 
river  seemed  alive  with  boats.  (4)  The  kitchen  looked 
inviting.     (5)  The  dog  was  a  pitiful  sight. 

The  following  are  original  uncorrected  paragraphs 
elaborated  from  original  sentences,  and  let  me  add 
that  the  boys  and  girls  who  did  the  work  heartily 
enjoyed  it. 

1. 

Sentence :  -  The  river  presented  a  picturesque  appear- 
ance." 

Paragraph :  "  The  river  rippled  and  murmured  as  it 
lazily  flowed  along.  On  the  banks  were  beautiful  oaks 
covered  with  spring  foliage,  the  branches  of  which  nearly 
met  in  the  middle  of  the  stream.  Here  and  there  might 
be  seen  a  quaint-looking  old  negro  in  his  heavy  bateau, 
either  fishing,  or  taking  his  little  pickaninnies  out  for  a 
ride." 


ELABORATION   OF  SENTENCES.  67 

2. 

Sentence  :  "  Tools  are  interesting  and  useful  to  me." 
Paragraph :  "  Tools  possess  a  peculiar  fascination  for 
me.  I  view  them  as  if  they  were  the  mystic  key  to  a 
secret  they  invited  me  to  discover.  They  seem  to  say : 
<We  don't  tell,'  'We  won't  tell,'  'We  will  tell  if  we 
must.'  I  handle  them  as  new  friends,  awkwardly ;  as 
old  friends,  with  skill,  learning  to  fashion  things  of  use 
and  things  of  beauty.  They  say  to  me :  '  Though  we 
pick  the  lock  for  the  burglar,  beware  how  you  slander  us ; 
for  the  things  that  we  destroy  we  also  make ;  and  remem- 
ber the  spacious  halls  and  the  vast  cathedrals  we  build. 
Even  the  home  you  live  in  was  fashioned  by  us.' " 

3. 

Sentence :  "  The  scenery  around  the  railroad  station 
was  grand  and  imposing." 

Paragraph:  "The  little  railroad  station  was  nestled  in 
the  valley  made  by  two  towering  mountains,  the  sides  of 
which,  covered  with  grisly  coats  of  forest,  we;|^  broken 
only  here  and  there  by  a  few  bare  spots  of  rocks  or  by 
small  cataracts  that  plunged  to  join  the  broad  stream  in 
the  valley  beneath." 

Having  properly  constructed  many  paragraplis,  the 
class  may  study  them  carefully  and  find  out  somo 
truths  about  them. 

First  they  may  learn,  that  a  paragra^di  is   actually*''''^ 
an   elaborated    sentence,    and    that,   consequently,    its 
sense   may  be  given  in  a  sentence.     Some  practice  in 


68  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

reducing  paragraphs  to  their  simplest  forms  will  not 
be  amiss.  Irving  and  Hawthorne  furnish  good  ma- 
terial for  this  work,  botli  because  they  are  specially 
skilful  in  construction  and  because  they  have  written 
much  that  children  like.  But  there  are  Addison  and 
Burke  and  De  Quincey  and  Macaulay  and  many  others 
to  help  us.  Naturally,  if  the  paragraph  may  be  con- 
densed into  a  sentence,  there  must  be  something  in 
it  that  is  talked  about, — the  topic, — which  corre- 
sponds to  the  subject  of  a  sentence  ;  and  something 
must  be  said  of  the  topic,  as  something  is  said  of 
the  subject  in  a  sentence.  The  class  may  with  ad- 
vantage find  the  topic  of  a  paragraph  and  then  make 
a  list  of  what  is  said  about  it. 

"  So  his  mother  told  him  a  story  that  her  own  mother 
had  told  to  her,  when  she  herself  was  younger  than  little 
Ernest ;  a  story,  not  of  things  that  were  past,  but  of  what 
was  yet  to  come  ;  a  story,  nevertheless,  so  very  old,  that 
even  the  Indians,  who  formerly  inhabited  this  valley,  had 
heard  it  from  their  forefathers,  to  whom,  as  they  affirmed, 
it  had  been  murmured  by  the  mountain  streams,  and  whis- 
pered by  the  wind  among  the  tree-tops." 

I  think  that  we  should  be  warranted  in  taking  this 
first  half  of  a  paragraph  from  Hawthorne  for  the  use 
of  an  elementary  class.  The  topic  is  made  so  promi- 
nent by  means  of  repetition  that  it  will  be  easily 
found,  and  the  predicative  matter  makes  an  interest- 


ELABORATION   OF  SENTENCES.  69 

ing  list;  for  tlie  story  —  "story"  is,  of  course,  the 
topic  —  is  told  to  Ernest  by  his  mother,  was  told  to 
her  by  her  mother,  is  not  a  story  of  the  past,  is  a 
story  of  the  future,  is  very  old,  is  so  old  that  the 
Indians  who  used  to  live  where  Ernest  now  lives 
had  heard  it  from  their  forefathers,  and  was  whis- 
pered to  the  early  Indians  by  Nature  herself. 

After  the  extract  just  quoted,  follows  a  brief  par- 
agraph of  which  the  topic  is  Ernest's  exclamation 
after  hearing  the  story  of  "  The  Great  Stone  Face ;  " 
then  comes  his  mother's  response,  —  a  topic  for  a  new 
paragraph,  —  with  an  allusion  to  the  wisdom  that  led 
to  her  response.  An  understanding  of  the  fact  that 
the  topic  naturally  limits  is  more  easily  obtained  if 
successive  paragraphs  are  read. 

We  may  take  for  further  illustration  of  these  same 
truths  the  first  paragraph  of  Hawthorne's  "  Tlie  Am- 
bitious Guest,"  in  which  the  family  forms  the  topic, 
and  from  which  the  predicative  matter  may  be  easily 
selected :  — 

"  One  September  nif^ht,  a  family  had  sathorod  round 
their  hearth,  and  piled  it  high  with  the  drift-wood  of 
mountain  streams,  the  dry  cones  of  the  pine,  and  the 
sijlintered  ruins  of  great  trees,  that  had  come  crashing 
down  the  precipice.  Up  the  chimney  roared  the  fire,  and 
brightened  the  room  with  its  broad  blaze.  The  faces  of 
the  father  and  mother  had  a  sober  gladness;  the  children 
laughed;  the  eldest  daughter  was  the  image  of  Happiness 


70  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

at  seventeen ;  and  the  aged  grandmother,  who  sat  knitting 
in  the  warmest  place,  was  the  image  of  Happiness  grown 
old.  They  had  found  the  'herb,  heart's  ease,'  in  the 
bleakest  spot  of  all  New  England.  This  family  were  sit- 
uated in  the  Notch  of  the  White  Hills,  where  the  wind 
was  sharp  throughout  the  year,  and  pitilessly  cold  in  the 
winter,  giving  their  cottage  all  its  fresh  inclemency  before 
it  descended  on  the  valley  of  the  Saco.  They  dwelt  in 
a  cold  spot  and  a  dangerous  one ;  for  a  mountain  towered 
above  their  heads,  so  steep  that  the  stones  would  often 
rumble  down  its  sides,  and  startle  them  at  midnight." 

Just  here,  the  coming  of  the  stranger  introduces  a 
new  topic,  and  consequently  a  new  paragraph. 

We  may,  moreover,  note  how  these  two  paragraphs 
are  connected :  the  second  as  you  know  begins,  "  The 
daughter  had  just  uttered  some  simple  jest,"  and, 
the  family  being  the  topic  in  paragraph  one,  this 
mention  of  one  member  of  it  at  the  beginning  of 
paragraph  two  serves  as  a  connecting  link.  It  will 
always  be  interesting  to  observe  how  ingeniously  au- 
thors bind  together  the  parts  of  their  work.  In 
classes  not  too  elementary  we  may  be  able  to  show, 
that  an  author  welds  together  his  paragraphs  and 
chapters  as  a  skilful  mechanic  welds  his  metal.  If 
the  connection  is  very  close,  one  thought  naturally 
suggesting  another,  he  may  do  without  connecting 
links,  as  a  mechanic  needs  no  link  when  he  welds 
the  ends  of  his  metal  bar  together.     If,  however,  the 


ELABORATION   OF  SENTENCES.  71 

connection  is    less   close,  the  writer   may   use    a   con- 
junction, as  the  mechanic  uses  a  link  or  a  hook. 

Now,  as  heretofore,  our  method  of  eliciting  and 
giving  information  regarding  the  topic  and  its  limita- 
tions, predicative  matter,  and  means  of  connection, 
will  be  that  of  question  and  answer.  Suppose  that 
a  brief  paragraph  has  been  read  aloud  and  copied  upon 
the  blackboard ;  this  one,  for  example,  from  Irving's 
Bracehridge  Hall:  — 

*'  They  found  the  doctor  seated  in  an  elbow-chair,  in  one 
corner  of  the  study,  or  laboratory,  with  a  large  volume,  in 
German  print,  before  him.  He  was  a  short,  fat  man,  with 
a  dark,  square  face,  rendered  more  dark  by  a  black  velvet 
cap.  He  had  a  little,  knobbed  nose,  not  unlike  the  ace  of 
spades,  with  a  pair  of  spectacles  gleaming  on  each  side  of 
his  dusky  countenance,  like  a  couple  of  bow-windows." 

We  may  ask,  "What  is  this  all  about?"  And  the 
class  must,  sooner  or  later,  decide  that  it  is  all  about 
"the  doctor."  Then  predicative  matter  may  be  picked 
out,  and  a  sentence  —  as  simple  in  form  as  possible  — 
may  be  formed  from  the  topic  and  wliat  has  been  said 
about  it.  Successive  paragraphs  in  this  chapter  may 
then  be  considered  with  reference  to  one  another,  and 
their  connecting  links  —  whether  they  be  words  or 
thoughts  —  may  b(!  designated.  This  somewliat  ana- 
lytical work  will,  of  course,  come  after  a  good  deal  of 
original  construction. 


72  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

Having  had  much  practice,  not  only  in  making  clear 
in  paragraphs  what  has  been  implied  in  original  sen- 
tences, but  also  in  reducing  paragraphs  to  sentences,  — 
which  will  have  involved  a  knowledge  of  topic  and 
of  predicative  matter,  —  having  also  noted  that  para- 
graphs may  be  bound  together,  and  that  they  should 
have  a  sequence,  the  class  will  be  ready  for  another 
question :  "  What  may  be  put  into  a  paragraph  ? " 
The  answer  to  this  question  will  show  that  we  are 
always  in  a  world  of  law  and  order,  and  that  what 
constitutes  our  paragraph  is  not  determined  by  our 
whim.  We  shall,  thus  early,  attempt  to  do  little  more 
than  show  that  whatever  directly  pertains  to  our  topic 
may  be  included  under  it.  The  most  elementary  class 
will  see  that  in  tlie  same  paragraph  mention  may  be 
made  of  a  horse,  a  broken  window,  a  hat  rolling  down 
the  street,  and  two  frightened  boys,  if  our  topic  is 
"  The  Runaway."  While  a  hat  rolling  down  the  street 
has  not,  necessarily,  anything  to  do  with  two  fright- 
ened boys,  yet,  the  condition  of  both  being  the  result 
of  one  accident,  they  may  be  alluded  to  in  the  same 
paragraph. 

Some  day,  in  our  reading,  we  may  come  across  a 
paragraph  that  tells  of  war  and  peace,  of  storm  and 
sunshine,  or  of  any  other  thing  and  its  opposite.  The 
class  may  —  let  us  hope  that  they  will — question  such 
an  arrangement  of  material ;  but  a  little  thought  should 
convince  them  that  storm  may  suggest  sunshine,  and 


ELABORATION  OF  SENTENCES.  Td 

war  may  suggest  peace,  as  any  one  thing  may  suggest 
its  opposite :  and  that,  consequently,  there  may  be  men- 
tion of  opposites  in  one  paragraph. 

It  will  hardly  be  desirable,  in  this  elementary  work, 
to  consider  more  specifically  paragraph  construction: 
we  will,  however,  note,  that,  while  a  sentence  has  a 
capital  to  mark  its  beginning,  a  paragraph  is  indented ; 
and  that,  if  several  successive  paragraphs  are  quoted, 
each  will  take  the  inverted  commas  at  its  beginning, 
but  only  the  last  will  have  the  apostrophes  at  the 
end  to  mark  tlie  close  of  the  quotation. 

Work  in  paragraphing  may  be  unified  with  almost 
every  study,  for  it  will  aid  any  topical  arrangement. 
Note-books  in  other  classes  than  ours  should  begin 
to  have  order  and  system  as  a  result  of  this  analytical 
and  constructive  work. 

But  this  set  of  exercises  brings  us  dangerously  near 
reefs  tliat  have  wrecked  many  a  class  in  composition ; 
for,  although  children  like  to  investigate,  much  analy- 
sis with  a  dearth  of  original  writing  may  give  a  life- 
long distaste  for  composition.  Literature  has  been 
our  friend  all  along;  will  it  not  help  us  here?  Lot 
us  go  to  the  humorists  and  the  story-tellers  for  our 
illustrative  extracts,  choosing  such  as  have  not  already 
been  culled  for  tlie  reading-books.  After  a  hearty 
laugli  over  a  paragraph  from  Holmes  or  from  L'ving, 
we  may  analyze  its  structure  closely,  yet  witli  zest; 
after  a  page  or  two  of  "  Rip  Van  Winkle  "  we  are  ready 


74  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

to  searcli  out  even  a  remote  cause  of  its  author's 
charm.  We  would  by  no  means  coddle  the  class; 
but  we  would  occasionally  take  advantage  of  humor 
—  that  sunshine  of  the  mind  —  to  help  us  through 
a  difficult  task. 

We  would,  however,  above  all,  go  again  and  again 
to  the  class  scrap-books,  choosing  therefrom-  suitable 
sentences  for  elaboration  into  interesting  and  original 
paragraphs.  To  give  to  the  merest  hint  of  something 
both  shape  and  beauty  will  fascinate  any  pupil.  I 
think  that  the  most  interesting  work  to  select  for 
our  scrap-book  will  be  original  sentences  with  original 
amplifications. 
''  Intelligent  work  in  paragraphing  will  give  oppor- 
tunities for  continued  practice  in  descriptive  writing 
and  the  use  of  onomatopoetic  words,  for  word-collecting, 
for  the  finding  or  use  of  similes  and  personification, 
and  for  the  telling  of  short  stories.  It  will  also  culti- 
vate both  judgment  and  taste,  and  prepare  the  way 
for  the  consideration  of  entire  compositions. 

SUMMARY. 

During  this  set  of  exercises,  — 
I.  We  shall  have  helped  expression  by  means  of  elaborating 
original  sentences  into  paragraphs.  This  work  will 
have  called  forth  effort,  and  may  have  cultivated 
both  the  representative  imagination  and  the  memory. 
II.  We  shall  have  carefully  studied  paragraph  construc- 
tion, learning :  — 


ELABORATION  OF  SENTENCES.  75 

1.  That  a  paragraph  is  an  elaborated  sentence,  with  a 

topic  corresponding  to  the  subject  of  a  sentence, 
and  with  predicative  matter  corresponding  to  the 
predicate  of  a  sentence. 

2.  That  the  topic  sets  limitations  to  the  paragraph. 

3.  That  successive  topics   have   a   sequence,  and   that 

the  passage  from  one  to  another  is  often  marked 
by  a  word  of  connection. 
III.    As  heretofore,  we  shall  have  begun  with  oral  work 
done  together,  and  we   shall  have  used  question 
and  answer  to  elicit  information. 
IV.    We  shall  have  noted  the  proper  arrangement  of  a 
paragraph  upon  the  printed  page,  and  the  punctu- 
ation of  quoted  successive  paragraphs. 
V.   We  shall  have  continued  to  use  literature. 
VI.    We  shall  have  begun  to  refer  to  old  scrap-book  work 

for  material. 
VII.   We    shall    have    incidentally    reviewed    descriptive 
writing  and  onomatopoetic  words,  etymology,  the 
simile  and  personification,  and  story-telling. 
VIII.    We  shall  have  prepared  the  way  for  the  successful 
consideration  of  entire  compositions. 

Note. —  Edwin    Uerbert   Lewis's    The    IliHtory   of  the  English 
Paragraph  may  prove  helpful  as  a  reference-book. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

BUILDING:    OUTLINING    COMPOSITIONS. 

The  Indian  woman  weaving  at  her  wigwam  door 
chooses  her  withes  with  critical  eye,  and  in  her  mind 
already  exists  the  shape  of  the  completed  basket  her 
fingers  are  beginning  to  fashion.  Birds  select  with 
no  less  fastidious  care  such  straws  and  feathers  and 
hairs  as  will  best  serve  them  for  a  nest  lining,  cling- 
ing obstinately  to  a  specially  suitable  bit ;  perhaps 
they  see  just  the  coming  place  for  it.  He  that  is  to  / 
create  a  parthenon  for  the  world  not  only  has  careful 
plans  for  design  and  materials ;  he  also  sees  his  fin- 
ished temple  already  marking  the  sky,  while  the  first 
stone  is  yet  unlaid.  The  sculptor  thinks,  and  dreams, 
and  thinks  of  his  work,  until  in  his  mind  it  rises,  so 
fair  or  so  strong  in  its  ideal  perfection  that  he  may 
never  equal  it  with  reality.  Just  as  surely  does  the 
little  child,  building  his  house,  marking  out  its 
grounds,  or  constructing  a  bridge  over  a  stream,  often 
work  with  reference  to  a  model  that  memory  or  im- 
agination furnishes.  It  is  clear  enough  that  anything 
worthy  of  construction  requires  a  definite  idea  of  its 
completed  self. 

76 


BUILDING:    OUTLINING    COMPOSITIONS.  77 

In  composition  work,  our  class  should  by  this  time 
have  acquired  some  freedom  of  thought,  some  power 
of  execution,  some  knowledge  of  words,  some  under- 
standing of  simple  construction,  even  some  apprecia- 
tion of  the  elements  of  style.  We  shall  not,  then,  be 
too  bold  if  we  now  venture  upon  the  designing  and 
building  of  compositions. 

I  think  that  we  may  simplify  such  work,  which  at 
first  will  be  oral  and  done  together,  if  we  associate 
it  at  every  stage  with  the  construction  of  an  object  — 
a  building,  for  instance.  By  means  of  questions  and 
answers,  it  may  be  made  evident  that  we  can  do  noth- 
ing until  we  know  our  subject ;  as  the  builder  can  do 
nothing,  either  with  materials  or  designs,  until  he 
knows  whether  his  work  is  to  be  a  house,  a  bridge,  a 
cathedral,  or  what.  Suppose,  to  begin  with,  we  decide 
to  describe  an  object  in  the  school-room.  If  we  do 
this,  we  shall  profit  by  the  ease  that  comes  from  writ- 
ing of  a  thing  actually  before  the  eyes  ;  for  neither 
the  representative  imagination  nor  the  memory  will  be 
taxed:  moreover,  our  class  has  already  learned  liow 
to  manage  descriptive  writing.  All  effort  thus  saved 
by  a  wise  choice  of  subject  may  be  given  to  thinking 
out  a  plan.  Our  subject  may  easily  be  a  fanciful  and 
amusing  one,  wliich  will  rouse  inventive  imagination, 
and  wliicli  will  satisfy  the  liking  fur  fun  that  every 
young  thing  ought  to  have.  Suppose  we  suggest: 
"  A  Uulcr  that  I  Know." 


78  ELEMENTARY   COMPOSITION. 

What  is  the  second  thing  that  the  builder  must 
know?  Surely  he  must  know  the  general  style  of 
his  structure ;  if  a  place  of  worship,  whether  it  is 
to  be  a  vast  cathedral  or  a  modest  chapel.  Let  us 
choose  our  style.  Shall  we  make  our  composition  mat- 
ter-of-fact or  fanciful  ?  Shall  we  write  of  some  king, 
or  of  the  ruler  that  is  on  our  desk,  or  shall  we  write 
of  the  desk-ruler  as  if  it  were  a  king?  The  fanciful 
and  humorous  treatment  of  our  subject  may  be  the 
most  likely  to  keep  us  awake  and  call  forth  interested 
effort  on  the  part  of  our  pupils. 

Our  style  is  chosen,  and  we  are  ready  for  the  next 
step.  Questions  and  answers  should  enable  us  to  draw 
attention  to  the  fact  that  everything  has  its  frame- 
work —  its  skeleton,  as  it  were.  It  may  be  that  we 
shall  say :  "  All  of  you  have  watched  the  building  of 
houses.  What  was  first  put  up  ?  —  framework  ?  or 
walls  ?  or  roof  ?  "  —  "  Has  any  one  ever  visited  a  ship- 
yard ? "  —  "  Did  you  see  men  beginning  to  make  a 
ship?"  —  "How  did  it  look?"  We  may  show  that  a 
fish,  a  leaf,  our  own  bodies,  have  framework,  and  that, 
if  we  are  going  to  make  a  composition,  we  would  best 
make  its  skeleton,  its  outline,  first.  So  we  will  next 
get  together  our  materials ;  afterward  we  may  dispose 
of  them  to  advantage. 

"  If  you  were  describing  a  real  ruler,  —  a  man  or  a 
woman, — what  would  you  be  likely  to  mention?  "  is 
now  our   inquiry.     We  may  hear  for   answers :  "  His 


BUILDING:    OUTLINING    COMPOSITIONS.  79 

looks  !  "  _  "  His  name  !  "  —  "  Where  he  lives  !  "  — 
"The  people  he  rules  over  I  "  Under  our  subject, 
written  on  the  blackboard,  we  will  add  these  as  topics, 
reminding  the  class  —  or  letting  them  remind  us  — 
that  each  one  of  these  topics  will  form  a  paragraph. 
We  will  head  each  topic  with  a  Roman  numeral,  and 
we  will  sujjorest  that  the  name  come  last,  as  a  sort 
of  surprise.  These,  then,  will  be  the  big  bones  of  our 
skeleton :  — 

A  Ruler  that  I  Know. 
I.    His  looks.  III.    His  kingdom. 

II.    His  subjects.  IV.    His  name. 


Now  for  the  little  bones.  We  will  have  somebody 
hold  up  a  good-sized  ruler  with  metal  edge  while 
we  ask,  "  Well,  what  does  he  look  like  ?  Is  he  straight 
or  crooked?"  Of  course,  he  is  straight  and  thin,  and 
has  a  stiff  back.  These  facts  may  be  added  under 
the  Arabic  numeral  1.  Next,  we  may  inquire,  "  How 
about  his  face?"  Perhaps  we  shall  learn  that  it  is 
lined  with  fine  regular  lines.  If  so,  we  will  add  that 
to  our  first  topic  under  the  Arabic  numeral  2.  "  Has 
the  ruler  any  deformity  or  peculiarity?"  may  bring 
out  the  fact  that  he  has  but  one  foot,  which  may 
make  a  third  entry  under  topic  I.  and  headed  by  the 
Arabic  numeral  3.  And  under  topic  H.  —  "  His  sub- 
jects " —  won't  tlie  class  enjoy  outlining  themselves 
as:   1.    A  race  of  dwarfs;    2.     Wondcrfull}'   industri- 


80  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

ous,  etc.?  About  as  well,  I  fancy,  they  will  like 
jotting  down  points  about  his  kingdom,  —  the  school- 
room, —  which  ■  we  have  taken  for  a  third  topic  and 
paragraph.  Although  we  might  do  many  other  things 
with  this  subject,  we  will  be  satisfied  with  four  short 
paragraphs,  making  the  topic  for  the  last  one  "His 
name."  The  class  could  now  utilize  in  some  way 
the  divisions  of  the  ruler,  or  call  him  "Ruler  of 
the  Metal  Back,"  or  "The  Twelve-Inch  King." 

Suppose,  for  a  second  exercise  in  outlining,  we  choose 
a  subject  suited  to  the  guessing-game  described  in  Chap- 
ter V.  "Something  Flat  that  ought  to  be  Round" 
would  do,  if  it  had  reference  to  a  fiat  map  of  the  world. 
The  children  should  be  able  to  outline  this  with  little 
help.  How  shall  this  second  composition  be  ended? 
Shall  we  proclaim  what  we  have  been  describing,  or 
shall  we  mystify  our  readers?  Happy  ought  we  to 
be  if  the  class  furnish  half  a  dozen  different  endings. 
If  we  decide  not  to  give  it  a  name,  we  may  make 
the  guessing  of  our  riddle  difficult  or  easy :  "  It  shows 
where  you  live ;  where  your  neighbor,  the  Frenchman, 
used  to  live ;  where  you  would  like  to  spend  your 
long  vacation." 

The  subjects  I  have  suggested  may  seem  trivial,  but 
they  lend  themselves  to  mirth  and  jollity;  and  will 
not  anything  that  turns  the  outlining  of  compositions 
from  drudgery  to  merrymaking  help  the  teacher  of 
elementary  composition? 


BUILDING:   OUTLINING   COMPOSITIONS.  81 

In  both  our  outlines  we  have  shown  the  importance 
of  having  purpose  and  climax.  In  both,  as  it  hap- 
pens, the  climax  is  at  the  end,  the  point  being  to 
give  the  name,  to  lead  up  to  its  inference,  or  to  mys- 
tify. I  think  we  need  do  little  more  in  elementary 
work  in  outlining  than  has  been  indicated,  provided 
that  we  have  all  along  insisted  upon  clearness  and 
sequence  in  arrangement ;  upon  that  fine  orderliness 
which  so  satisfies  both  reader  and  writer.  For  there 
is,  of  course,  a  clearness  that  comes  from  arrange- 
ment, as  there  is  a  clearness  that  comes  from  ex- 
pression. 

By  means  of  such  work  as  has  been  described,  chil- 
dren will  learn  how  to  assort  facts,  —  as  doubtless 
they  liave  already  learned  how  to  assort  colors,  — 
and  they  will  acquire  a  method  in  composition.  It 
seems  to  me  desirable  not  so  much  to  teach  this 
plan  as  to  teach  some  plan. 

But  are  outlines  never  to  be  filled  in?  Some  day, 
after  pupils  have  aquired  facility  in  making  them,  we 
will  assign  one  previously  prepared  by  the  class,  and, 
after  a  little  fresh  discussion  of  it,  put  the  flesh 
and  blood  on  its  bones.  This  work  should  be  care- 
fully done,  paragraph  by  paragrapli  ;  for  as  in  a  mosaic 
each  separate  piece  must  be  adapted  to  its  place  and 
properly  fitted  into  it,  so  in  a  composition  each  word, 
sentence,  and  paragrapli  must  be  suited  to  its  purpose 
and  put  where    it  belongs.     The  work  done   may  be 


82  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

read  aloud  and  talked  over.  We  shall  gain  something 
from  having  had  our  piece  of  work  on  hand  for  a 
while.  We  shall  form  the  habit  of  giving  time  and 
thought  to  composition  as  to  other  genuine  work.  We 
shall  have  respect  for  this  work  as  for  any  other,  if 
we  do  it  with  faithfulness  and  finish  it  with  nicety. 
And  we  shall  be  able  to  finish  it  with  nicety,  because 
our  material  cannot  get  away  from  us ;  it  has  been 
crystallized  into  an  outline ;  we  can  afford  to  take 
time  to  elaborate  it.  At  the  completion  of  the  com- 
position, we  shall  feel  there  has  been  actual  achieve- 
ment. 

The  value  of  an  outline  may  be  shown  in  yet  an- 
other way.  Let  some  one  make  a  synopsis,  and  the 
topics  be  distributed  among  the  members  of  the  class. 
If  the  outline  is  clear  and  simple,  the  entire  produc- 
tion —  though  so  many  brains  have  helped  to  make  it 
—  will  have  unity;  just  as  a  building  will  have  unity 
if  carefully  designed,  though  many  workmen  help  in 
its  construction.  Truth  will  require  us  to  show,  how- 
ever, that  such  apportioned  work  can  hardly  fail  to 
lack  the  perfection  that  marks  what  is  both  con- 
ceived and  executed  by  one  workman.  Outlining  and 
elaboration  as  here  described  may  be  carefully  and 
patiently  finished,  and  yet  compositions  need  lack  noth- 
ing in  spiritedness  and  spontaneity. 

All  work,  thus  far,  has  been  done  in  the  school-room. 
Is   no   composition   to    demand    outsido   work?    After 


BUILDING:    OUTLINING    COMPOSITIONS.  83 

a  good  deal  of  practice  in  writing  compositions  to- 
gether, we  may  select  a  class  outline  from  our  scrap- 
book  and  ask  for  a  composition.  Tliis  is  the  first 
time  that  we  have  assigned  a  subject  to  be  carried 
round  in  the  mind  and  brooded  over.  But  the  fact 
that  all  of  us  together  have  made  the  plan  will  sim- 
plify the  work.  Finally,  there  will  come  the  proper 
day  for  requiring  an  original  composition  built  up  from 
the  subject  alone.  We  need  much  judgment  and  a 
knowledge  of  our  pupils  in  order  to  assign  suitable 
subjects.  "The  Magic  Board"  —  the  blackboard  — 
will  be  suggestive;  so  will  be  "A  Hanging  Garden," 
referrinsr  to  a  flower-box  at  the  school-room  window ; 
or  "My  Tree;"  or  "Trees;"  or  "One  Thing  that 
I  saw  on  My  Way  to  School;  "or  "The  Place  to 
which  I  (iftenest  go  in  Thought;"  or  "  Tlie  Black 
Well" — the  ink-well — for  an  imaginative  child,  who 
will  tell  what  drinks  from  it,  whence  its  waters  came, 
and  what  they  do.  Dozens  of  subjects,  probably 
better  tlian  those  mentioned,  will  come  into  the  mind 
of  any  teacher. 

Having  assigned  subjects,  we  will  give  a  few  days 
during  which  facts  and  thoughts  may  be  jotted  down. 
An  elementary  class  will  undoubtedly  be  given  fewer 
days  than  would  be  allowed  to  an  advanced  class ;  for, 
since  children  weary  quickly,  prolonged  effort  on  their 
part  may  not  be  required.  We  will  show  the  im- 
portance of  selecting  the  subject  early,   and  of  keep- 


84  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

ing  it  in  mind;  the  pupil  that  knows  what  he  is 
going  to  write  about  will  gain  legitimate  help  almost 
without  seeking  it.  He  will,  for  instance,  have  oppor- 
tunities to  observe  his  tree,  its  beauty  and  the  life 
upon  it,  at  different  hours ;  or  to  notice  how  the 
magic  board  changes  as  work  during  various  recita- 
tions is  represented  upon  it  or  erased  from  it ;  or 
he  may  hear  facts  and  myths  about  trees.  If  only 
one  here  and  there  may  wander  with  Orlando  through 
the  Forest  of  Arden,  or  rush  with  Lanier  out  to 
the  "braided  dusks  of  the  oak,"  or  wait,  awed,  while 
The  Master  withdraws  to  the  woods  where 

"The  little  gray  leaves  were  kind  to  Him  ;" 

surely  all  may  meet  Roljin  Hood  in  Sherwood  Forest, 
or  steal  up  to  the  Charter  Oak  with  men  of  old,  or 
with  Hiawatha  strip  its  "white-skin  wrapx^er"  from  the 
birch-tree. 

After  materials  have  been  gathered,  each  pupil  may 
make  his  own  outline  in  class ;  and  at  a  later  time 
may,  still  in  the  school-room,  elaborate  his  outline  into 
a  composition.  Although  this  work  is  to  be  original, 
during  it  the  teacher  will  be  ready  for  consultation 
or  friendly  suggestion. 

There  is,  of  course,  no  study  that  compositions  do 
not  touch;  they  may  help  every  other,  and  every 
other  may  help  them.  Perhaps  their  closest  connec- 
tion will  still  be  with  literature.     We  shall  read  compo- 


BUILDING:   OUTLINING   COMPOSITIONS.  85 

sitions  similar  in  purpose  to  those  which  our  class  have 
undertaken ;  we  shall  find  the  skeletons  of  descrip- 
tions and  stories ;  and  shall  perhaps  note  sequence 
and  climaxes. 

Our  new  scrap-book  work  will  probably  consist  for 
the  most  part  of  subjects,  with  outlines  and  compo- 
sitions. It  will  be  well  to  have  for  one  subject  as 
many  different  outlines  and  compositions  as  the  indi- 
viduality and  originality  of  the  pupils  make  j)ossible. 
There  are  both  satisfaction  and  inspiration  in  the  clear 
and  original  expression  of  thought ;  and  just  so  far 
as  composition  work  enables  a  pupil  to  translate  him- 
self will  it  be  profitable  and  enjoyable.  It  will  also 
be  interesting  to  have  the  parallel  work  of  authors 
and  pupils  collected  and  pasted  side  by  side ;  for  in- 
stance, descriptions  of  holidays,  scenes,  and  processions. 

The  course  of  our  class  need  not  be  over  a  dreary 
waste,  but  along  a  definite  path,  which,  even  if 
marked  out  by  others,  yet  will  disclose  for  every  new- 
comer, and  at  every  step,  fresh  knowledge  and  delight ; 
sometimes  a  pupil  will  be  so  wise,  so  keen  of  vision, 
or  so  pure  in  heart  as  to  find  truth  or  beauty  that 
has  been  hidden  from  other  eyes ;  for  the  world's 
coming  wisdom  and  light  and  life  are  in  the  keeping 
of  the  children. 

SUMMAIir. 

During  these  exercises  in  the  building  of  compositions,  — 
I.    We  shall  have  shown  the  need  of  a  working-plau. 


86  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

II.   We  shall  have  made  our  work,  as  hitherto,  common 
to  class  and  teacher,  and  oral  at  first. 

III.  We  shall  have  associated  it,  at  every  stage,  with 

the  construction  of  an  object. 

IV.  We  shall  have  chosen  for  our  first  work  the  descrip- 

tion of  something  in  the  school-room,  thus  taxing 
neither  the  memory  nor  the  representative  imagi- 
nation, and  concentrating  effort  upon  the  plan. 
V.  We  shall,  perhaps,  have  found  it  an  advantage  to 
select  a  subject  somewhat  fanciful  or  suggesting 
humorous  treatment. 

VI.  The  order  that  our  work  naturally  follows  we  shall 
have  found  to  be  :  choice  of  subject,  choice  of 
style,  making  of  outline,  elaboration. 
VII.  We  shall  have  shown  the  necessity  of  having  pur- 
pose, sequence,  unity,  and  climax. 
VIII.  We  shall  have  recognized  the  fact  that  something  is 
to  be  gained  from  having  our  piece  of  work  on 
hand  for  a  while,  —  the  habit  of  giving  time  and 
thought  to  composition  work,  and  a  respect  for 
what  has  required  genuine  effort. 

IX.  We  shall  have  confined  ourselves,  at  first,  to  work  in 
common,  —  the  making  of  outlines,  and  the  elab- 
oration of  them ;  then  we  shall  have  required  the 
writing  of  original  paragraphs,  making  original 
compositions,  but  in  accordance  with  an  outline 
taken  from  our  scrap-book ;  finally,  we  shall  have 
called  for  both  original  outlines  and  original  com- 
positions, assigning  only  subjects. 

X.    We  shall  have  made  an  especially  careful  selection  of 
subjects  for  this  last  quite  original  work,  and  shall 


BUILDING:   OUTLINING   COMPOSITIONS.  87 

have  given  a  very  few  days  for  the  acquisition 
of  material. 
XI.  We  shall,  moreover,  have  made  clear  the  importance 
of  keeping  a  subject  in  mind,  in  order  to  gain 
material  legitimately  but  with  little  effort. 
XII.  We  shall  have  done  all  writing,  except  the  jotting 
down  of  material,  in  the  school-room. 

XIII.  We  shall  have  unified  composition  with  other  stud- 

ies, chiefly  by  means  of  subjects  and  illustrative 
material. 

XIV.  We  shall  have  continued  to  recognize  the  helpful- 

ness of  literature,  and  to  profit  by  it  through  the 
reading  of  work  parallel  with  that  attempted  by 
our  class  ;  through  the  noting  of  unity,  climax, 
and  sequence,  as  well  as  through  the  finding  of 
the  hidden  outlines  of  finished  productions. 

XV.  We  shall  have  added  outlines  and  compositions  to 
scrap-book  work,  endeavoring  to  have  several  ori- 
ginal outlines  and  completed  compositions  for 
each  subject;  we  shall  have  added,  also,  parallel 
work  of  authors  and  students. 

xvr.  We  shall,  let  us  hope,  have  made  definite  purpose 
and  accomplishment  as  possible  in  composition 
work  as  in  any  other. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

A  WORD  ABOUT  W^EEDING  AND  OTHER  TOPICS. 

One  exercise  that  will  suggest  itself  sooner  or  later 
to  the  teacher  of  elementary  composition  is  "weed- 
ing." After  our  class  have  become  somewhat  accus- 
tomed to  writing,  and  have  filed  a  good  deal  of  work 
in  their  scrap-books,  we  may  begin  to  teach  economy, 
quite  in  accordance  with  Herbert  Spencer's  teaching 
of  it  in  his  Essay  on  the  Pliilosophy  of  Style.  We 
shall  show  that  economy  should  exist  in  the  world 
of  composition  as  elsewhere  —  especially  that  economy 
which  saves  effort  on  the  part  of  reader  or  listener. 
After  pupils  have  acquired  even  a  little  knowledge 
of  construction,  they  will  enjoy  taking  one  of  their 
old  paragraphs  to  "  weed."  They  will  require  of 
each  word  that  it  do  some  service  —  a  service  which 
they  may  tell  about.  Sometimes,  of  course,  they  will 
err  in  judgment,  as  they  will  surely  be  deficient  in 
knowledge  ;  very  likely  they  will  often  begin  to  pull 
out  a  useful  expression ;  wise  supervision  will  be 
needed.  But  with  wise  supervision  the  exercise  will 
be  play  and  analysis  combined  ;  and  I  believe  that  it 
will  greatly  aid  routine  grammar  work. 

88 


WEEDING  AND   OTHER    TOPICS.  89 

Having  taken  out  the  overgrowth,  or  the  under- 
growth, —  those  snares  that  keep  the  reader  from  pen- 
etrating to  the  thought  they  liide  rather  than  reveal, 
—  we  may  look  at  our  work  anew  with  reference  to 
its  power  to  please.  We  shall  be  almost  sure  to  find 
monotony,  that  monotony  which  comes  from  a  con- 
stant repetition  of  words  and  phrases.  It  will  be  easily 
appreciated  by  our  class,  that  monotony  of  sound  is 
wearisome.  Who  willingly  listens  to  five-finger  exer- 
cises, unless  she  be  a  doting  mother  responsible  for 
her  child's  practice  and  progress  ?  If  we  tell  our  class 
that  one  of  the  most  painful  tortures  is  to  have  water 
fall  drop  by  drop  at  regular  intervals  upon  one  spot 
on  the  body,  they  may  reason  from  analogy,  and  be 
glad  to  go  over  their  work,  trying  to  save  their  reader's 
ears  from  the  frequent  repetition  of  a  word.  They 
have  at  hand  one  means  of  doing  this :  synonyms. 
The  work  of  acquiring  a  vocabulary  outlined  in  the 
fourth  chapter,  and  which  has  been  going  on  day  by 
day  ever  since,  has  added  to  vocabularies,  and  has 
given  groups  of  synonyms  for  our  etymological  sheets. 
We  may  now,  therefore,  gain  variety,  become  nicer 
in  our  distinctions,  and  be  sure  of  finer  effects. 

Yet  a  third  time  we  may  go  over  our  paragraphs, 
using  onomatopoetic  words  where  they  were  not  used 
but  miglit  have  been.  The  result  will  be  quite  in 
the  nature  of  an  inspiration  to  the  boys  and  girls. 
Here  are  two  original  paragraplis  written   during  an 


90  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

examination.  The  requirement  for  this  especial  ques- 
tion was:  Write  a  paragraph  in  which  you  make 
your  words  convey  their  meaning  in  their  sound. 


Did  you  ever  visit  the  editorial  rooms  of  a  great 
newspaper  oflB.ce  ?  I  once  had  that  pleasure,  and  found 
it  interesting  to  notice  the  style  and  rapidit}^  with  which 
the  different  men  wrote.  I  recall  one  on  my  left  as  I 
entered.  His  artistic  touch  and  the  gentle  stroke  of  his 
pen  indicated  that  he  was  a  fine  penman,  and  not  pressed 
by  time,  as  were  the  others.  In  marked  contrast  was 
a  man  in  front  of  him,  scribbling  in  a  race  with  time  ; 
and  another,  whose  scrawling  was  legible  only  to  himself. 
And  there  was  still  another,  his  pen  jumping  and  shoot- 
ing along  like  zigzag  lightning ;  with  one  beside  him  whose 
creations  were  so  fine  you  imagined  he  might  be  drawing 
straight  lines,  and  wondered  how  he  could  read  them 
without  a  microscope.  Each  man  gradually  had  acquired 
a  style  that  suited  him. 

There  is  not  a  wealth  of  onomatopoetic  words  here ; 
for  the  pupil  understood  that  he  was  not  to  use  an 
imitative  word  unless  it  helped  him  in  the  expression 
of  his  thoucfhts. 


o 


Mr.  Quak  waddled  along  the  path  to  the  pond  and 
met  Mr.  Baa,  who  was  browsing  along  in  a  contented 
manner.  As  they  neared  the  pond,  they  met  Mr.  Neigh 
sucking  up  the  water  in  long  gulps.  They  all  said,  "  What 
a  blessing  is  water!" 


WEEDING  AND   OTHER   TOPICS.  91 

After  this  weeding,  substitution  of  synonyms,  and 
introduction  of  onomatopoetic  words,  the  class  will 
enjoy  comparing  their  original  paragraph  with  the 
reconstructed  paragraph.  This  will  put  them  into 
the  proper  mood  for  some  work  in  phraseology.  They 
will  perceive  that  their  work  has  gained  something: 
for  weeding  will  have  given  strength;  synonyms, 
smoothness  and  variety;  and  imitative  words,  vigor. 
They  will  be  patient  during  more  prosaic  work. 

If  we  next  look  within  sentences,  we  shall  find  errors 
that  may  be  classified,  errors  that  seem  to  require 
technical  terms  for  their  explanation,  and  that  may 
seem  to  demand  (of  the  young)  too  much  analysis. 
Some  of  these  errors  necessitate  the  consideration  of:  — 

1.  The  misuse  of  the  simple  future  and  the  future  of 

volition. 

2.  The  misrelated  participle. 

3.  The  incorrect  sequence  of  tenses. 

4.  The  lack  of  direct  discourse. 

5.  The  chain  construction  of  relative  clauses. 

G.    The  misuse  of  explanatory  and  of  restrictive  rela- 
tive clauses. 
7.    The  separation  of  the  infinitive  and  its  sign. 

I  tliink  that  many  errors  may  be  discovered  by  quite 
elementary  classes,  and  tliat  the  principles  tlicy  violate 
may  be  clearly  and  simply  shown.  Let  us  consider 
our  topics  in  the  order  given. 


92  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

1.  It  will  be  enough  for  us,  at  first,  to  take  up  — 
under  future  tense  —  merely  the  simple  future  and  the 
future  of  volition.  Professor  A.  S.  Hill  of  Harvard 
advises  that  pupils  learn  the  inflection  of  these  two 
futures,  and  bear  that  inflection  in  mind.  I  have  had 
my  own  classes  do  this,  but  I  have  had  them  do 
more.  I  have  tried  to  have  them  realize  just  the 
value  of  each  of  these  two  futures,  in  this  way :  The 

^^/simple  future  —  I  shall,  you  will,  he  will,  we  shall, 
you  will,  they  will  —  is  under  the  control  of  fate,  as 
it  were,  under  the  control  of  circumstances.  No  per- 
son —  not  the  first,  second,  nor  third  —  has  any 
mastery  of  the  situation.  All  are  as  if  in  a  rudder- 
less boat  swept  onward  by  time,  the  current  deter- 
mining their  fate.     The  future  of  volition  —  I  will,  you 

^  shall,  he  shall,  we  will,  you  shall,  they  shall  —  is  the 
willing  future,  and  he  who  wills  is  the  speaker.  The 
speaker  is  the  master  here.  He  declares  what  he  will 
do ;  what  you  shall  do ;  what  your  friend  or  enemy 
shall  do.  In  order  to  make  this  work  interesting  as 
well  as  clear,  I  asked  my  classes  to  draw  or  find  pic- 
tures that  would  illustrate  these  two  futures.  The 
first  picture  was  of  two  little  negroes  out  in  the  rain 
in  an  open  field,  with  scanty  clothing,  and  under  a 
ragged  umbrella.  The  artist  —  a  boy  —  wrote :  "  The 
result  is  inevitable :  outside  circumstances  control ; 
they  ivill  get  wet."  Another  boy  illustrated  the  two 
futures.     The  inevitable  (the  simple)  future  was  repre- 


WEEDING  AND   OTHER    TOPICS.  93 

sented  by  a  railroad  train  dashing  along  toward  a 
piece  of  broken  track.  "  The  result  is  inevitable ;  cir- 
cumstances control,"  said  the  boy ;  "  the  train  will  be 
wrecked."  His  contrasting  picture  showed  a  com- 
mander before  his  men,  giving  the  order,  "  You  shall 
not  fire  until  you  see  the  whites  of  their  eyes  ! "  Here, 
of  course,  was  the  future  of  volition.  The  third  pic- 
ture was  of  a  lion  couchant,  his  prey  unseen,  but 
presumably  defenceless,  before  him.  "  The  result  is 
inevitable,"  explained  the  girl  that  selected  these  illus- 
trations ;  "  the  prey  will  be  devoured."  Outside 
circumstances  —  the  strength  of  the  wild  lion,  the 
weakness  of  his  prey  —  control  the  situation.  The 
girl's  second  picture  represented  a  little  dog  with  a 
napkin  tied  around  his  neck,  and  his  mistress  about 
to  feed  him.  "Now,  Zip,"  says  the  child,  "you  shall 
keep  still  before  I  feed  you."  "  This,"  said  the  young 
girl  that  chose  the  pictures  to  prove  her  knowledge, 
"is  the  future  of  volition,  of  willing;  the  speaker's 
will,  the  child's,  controls."  Let  me  give  two  papers 
more  in  detail :  — 

FUTURE  OF  VOLITION. 

"This  is  tlie  future  of  determination,  the  future  show- 
ing purpose.  In  this  future,  the  speaker  (the  first  per- 
son) controls  everybody  and  everything.  He  is  like  the 
absolute  and  despotic  ruler  of  Cliina,  whose  word  is  law, 
and  before  wliom  all   his  subjoets  bow   wiili  awe." 


94  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

Then  follows  the  inflection  :  — 


I  will 

We  will 

You  shall 

You  shall 

He  shall 

They  shall 

Under  the  inflection  is  a  picture,  representing  a  cat 
with  front  paws  extended,  and  each  paw  holding  the 
tail  of  a  mouse.  This  is  the  legend  written  under 
the  picture :  — 

"In  the  above  illustration  the  cat  evidently  has  full 
control  over  the  mice.  One  can  almost  see  the  mouth 
smile  with  satisfaction  as  she  .says,  '  I  have  waited  for 
you  day  and  night,  and  now  I  have  got  you !  I  will 
eat  you ;  you  shall  not  get  away ! ' " 

The  second  paper  of  this  same  pupil  deals  with 
the  simple  future,  as  follows :  — 

"  This  is  the  future  of  fate.  Everybody  and  every- 
thing, apparently,  is  helpless.  Outside  circumstances 
control." 

Then  follows  the  inflection :  — 


I  shall 

We  shall 

You  will 

You  will 

He  will 

They  will 

The  illustration  under  this  inflection  represents  the 
cat  of  the  first  picture,  but  clasping  tails  that  have 
parted   from   the  bodies  of  the  mice.     Underneath  is 


this  legend: 


WEEDING   AND   OTHER    TOPICS  95 

"But  —  outside  circumstances  control.  The  cat,  and 
probably  the  mice  also,  did  not  count  on  the  mice  losing 
their  tails.  Her  smile  of  victory  changes  to  a  look  of 
disappointment,  as  she  adds :  '  I  shall  have  to  go  without 
my  dinner,  and  you  are  safe  in  your  hole.  What  did 
your  tails  break  for,  anyhow  ?  Oh,  dear !  How  trying 
life  is  ! '  " 

I  think  that  this  class  understood  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  simple  future  and  the  future  of  volition. 

2.  The  misrelated  participle  is  often  found  in  the 
work  of  young  people.  "  Having  missed  his  examina- 
tion, I  asked  his  teacher  to  let  him  try  another,"  will 
do  for  our  purpose  of  illustration.  This  mistake,  as 
well  as  many  another,  is  owing  to  carelessness.  Per- 
haps we  may  induce  our  pupils  to  become  heedful  if 
we  say  something  of  this  sort :  "  What  takes  care  of 
having  in  that  sentence?  "  Of  course  it  is  not  cared  for. 
"  What  have  you  done,  but  treat  a  word  as  you  would 
not  dare  to  treat  anything  else?  Would  you  turn  a 
child  into  the  street,  with  absolutely  no  protector  nor 
protection  ?  That  is  what  you  have  done  to  that 
little  word.  Please  look  after  it,  plan  for  it."  We 
may  have  to  help  and  suggest ;  but  we  may  —  I 
speak  from  experience  —  very  soon  get  rid  of  mis- 
related  participles.  We  may  show  that  words  have  their 
rights,  and  that  there  arc  such  things  as  morality  and 
justice  in  composition. 

3.  The  desirability  of  using  direct  discourse,  some- 


96  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

times  or  often,  may  perhaps   be    most   clearly  shown 
by  means   of  a  story.     Suppose  we  write   together   a 
brief    narrative    in    which    conversation    is    reported. 
Left  to   themselves,   the    class  will   probably   use  the 
indirect  discourse  to  represent  the  different  speeches. 
After  our  work  is  done,  we  may  suggest  letting  each 
person  speak   for   himself.     The  gain  in   life  will  be 
noticeable.     If  requested  to  tell  how  we  have  added 
to  the   interest  of  our  narrative,   I   believe   that  the 
class,    or   one   or  more   members    of   it,   will   explain. 
Suppose  the  anecdote  is  one  about  Grant  or  Lincoln. 
When    Grant's   exact  words    are  given,  we  shall  get 
more   or  less   of   the    man;   his   manner,    at   least    of 
speaking,  and  his  laconic  style  will  tell  us  something 
of   himself.     Lincoln,    with   his   peculiar    humor,   will 
be   a   relief  to  Grant;   and,   when  we   again  take  up 
the   thread   of   the   narrative    ourselves,    we   shall    be 
more  welcome  to  our   readers   or   hearers   because   of 
our  brief  absence  from  the  stage  while  Grant  and  Lin- 
coln were  the  actors.     Direct  discourse,  then,  gives  a 
pleasing  variety,  a  picturesqueness,   and  a  vigor  that 
the  monotonous  telling  at  second  hand   cannot  give. 
It  may  easily  be  shown,  as  every  grammar  shows,  how 
direct   discourse   often  serves   clearness.     Who  is  not 
familiar  with,   "He  told  him  that  his  cattle  were  in 
his   fields,"   and  equally   familiar  with  the  correction 
of  it? 

4.   Will   not   our  class   be   likely   to   see    that    the 


WEEDING  AND   OTHER   TOPICS.  97 

chain  construction  of  relative  clauses  is  weak,  pro- 
vided this  construction  with  words  be  compared  to  a 
similar  construction  elsewhere?  After  explaining  to 
a  class,  by  means  of  some  simple  diagram,  how  each 
new  relative  draws  the  mind  away  from  the  actual 
subject  of  the  sentence,  and  so  diverts  attention 
rather  than  concentrates  it  upon  the  theme  that  should 
be  kept  in  mind,  we  may  ask  them  to  tell  us  of  a 
similar  violation  of  the  principle  of  strength  in  some 
other  kind  of  construction.  I  required  one  of  my 
classes  to  do  this.  One  boy  made  a  picture  of  a  ship 
with  a  line  of  small  boats  in  tow  —  a  weak  construc- 
tion easily  broken  ;  while  his  contrasting  sketch  was 
the  same  big  boat  with  each  little  boat  tied  to  her. 
A  young  girl  illustrated  the  same  principle  by  means 
of  an  umbrella  and  its  ribs. 

5.  It  may  seem  somewhat  difficult  to  teach  a  class 
to  perceive  what  determines  the  sequence,  or  follow- 
ing, of  tenses.  First  of  all,  let  us  get  them  to  under- 
stand that  there  is  a  regulator  somewhere ;  a  word, 
or  group  of  words,  that  will  manage  everything  for 
them.  We  may,  in  our  scrap-book,  find  something 
like  this :  "  How  I  should  have  liked  to  have  gone 
to  that  birthday  party ! "  We  may  ask,  "  Wlicn  was 
the  party  ?  "  Suppose  the  answer  to  be  "  Last  June." 
—  "When  were  you  wishing  about  it?"  —  "That  was 
in  last  June,  too."  — "  Very  well ;  please  go  back  in 
your  mind,  just  for  a  iiiiimto,  to  last  June.     Are  you 


98  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

there,  yet  ?  Very  well ;  now  it  is  June,  and  the  party 
is  coming  to-morrow.  What  do  you  say  to  your 
mother,  as  you  think  of  the  coming  party?  How  I 
should  like  to  —  what?"  We  shall  succeed,  sooner 
or  later,  in  getting  the  present  infinitive  to  go.  Such 
exercises  may  be  multiplied  until  our  pupils  appre- 
ciate the  fact,  that,  where  there  is  a  principal  tense 
with  subordinate  tenses,  the  principal  tense  is  the 
regulator  of  the  others;  that  all  we  have  to  do  is  to 
live  in  imagination  in  the  time  referred  to  by  the  prin- 
cipal tense,  and,  living  then,  not  now,  to  think  and 
speak  naturally. 

6.  Classes  nearly  always  find  stumbling-blocks  in 
restrictive  and  explanatory  relative  clauses  with  their 
distinctions  and  punctuation.  These  stumbling-blocks 
may  be  removed,  it  seems  to  me,  by  the  pupil's  intel- 
ligent questioning  of  himself.  Let  me  illustrate :  — 
Our  scrap-book  may  give  us  a  sentence  somewhat  like 
the  following :  "  The  man  that  ran  down  the  street 
just  now  is  giving  the  alarm."  Suppose  we  ask, 
"  Who  is  giving  the  alarm  ?  "  There  can  be  but  one 
answer :  "  The  man  that  ran  down  the  street  just 
now."  — "  Can  you  not  give  a  shorter  answer  ? "  we 
ask.  Of  course,  the  class  cannot.  "  Well ;  try  this 
sentence :  *  John  Parsons,  who  ran  down  the  street  a 
minute  ago,  is  giving  the  alarm.'  Who  is  giving  the 
alarm  ? "  Of  course  it  is  John  Parsons.  We  may 
now,  by  continuing  our  questioning,  help  the  class  to 


WEEDING   AND    OTHER    TOPICS.  99 

see,  that  the  restrictive  relative  —  the  form  of  which 
is  usually  that  —  is  needed  by  its  noun  to  prove  the 
identity  of  tliat  noun.  In  the  sentence,  "  The  man 
that  ran  down  the  street  just  now  is  giving  the  alarm," 
the  only  thing  to  show  what  man  is  giving  the  alarm 
is  the  relative  clause,  "that  ran  down  the  street  just 
now ;  "  therefore,  this  clause  is  tied  tight,  as  it  were,  to 
its  noun,  and  will  not  let  even  a  comma  squeeze  in  be- 
tween them.  But  in  the  other  sentence, —  "John  Par- 
sons, who  ran  down  the  street  just  now,  is  giving  the 
alarm," — we  know  perfectly  well  who  is  giving  the 
alarm  without  help  from  the  relative  clause,  "who 
ran  down  the  street  just  now."  Therefore,  this  rela- 
tive clause  tells  something  new ;  it  is  equivalent  to 
"and  he  ran  down  the  street  just  now."  Moreover,  it 
is  not  tied  so  closely  to  its  noun,  and  it  lets  a  comma 
in  before  it  and  after  it.  If  a  class  once  appreciates 
the  distinction  here  made, —  that  the  restrictive  relative 
is  needed  to  determine  the  identity  of  its  noun,  while 
the  explanatory  relative  is  not  so  needed,  —  then  its 
only  remaining  difficulty  will  be  the  management  of 
exceptional  cases,  which  may  be  left  for  a  later 
time. 

7.  Many  a  Ijoy  or  girl  will  enjoy  answering  an 
inquiry  similar  to  this:  "Will  you  make  us  see  that 
the  sign  of  the  infinitive  ought  to  be  put  before  it?" 
I  once  required  the  following  in  an  examination, 
without  a  hint  of   its  coming :   "  Show,  by  means  of 


100  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

a  reference  to  trade,  to  algebra,  or  to  chemistry,  the 
absurdity  of  separating  the  infinitive  and  its  sign." 
One  boy  wrote,  that,  if  he  had  a  carpenter's  shop,  he 
sliould  put  his  sign  over  the  door  of  his  shop,  not  in 
a  place  where  there  was  no  shop.  Another  said,  that 
he  should  not  put  his  label  for  a  barrel  of  grapes  on 
a  box  of  tea.  Another  said,  that  he  should  put  his 
radical  sign  where  it  belonged,  over  the  quantity  it 
affected,  not  somewhere  else,  whei'e  it  would  only 
mislead  and  work  mischief.  '  All  connected  these  state- 
ments with  the  proper  use  of  the  infinitive  and  its 
sign.  If  work  in  language  is  seen  to  be  based  on 
general  principles  that  hold  true  everywhere,  —  in  the 
factory,  in  the  blacksmith's  shop,  or  in  the  artist's 
studio,  as  well  as  in  the  class-room,  —  boys  and  girls 
begin  to  respect  language  work,  and  to  enjoy  do- 
ing it. 

The  teacher  of  elementary  composition,  or  of  any 
kind  of  composition,  is  likely  to  find  it  necessary  to 
cultivate  the  power  to  think  and  the  power  to  feel. 
May  not  examination  questions  help  to  do  this?  Let 
me  give  a  few  questions,  not  because  they  are  by  any 
means  model  ones,  but  because  they  are  intended 
only  secondarily  for  review,  and  primarily  to  provoke 
thought.  The  first  question  was  upon  the  examina- 
tion paper  of  a  class  just  from  the  grammar  school. 
It  was  made  optional,  and  little  was  expected  from 
the  class,  but  much  was  obtained. 


WEEDING  AND    OTHER    TOPICS.  101 

1.  Try  to  find  the  two  words  in  the  following  quota- 
tion that  show  why  Eustace  Bright  thought  that  the  sum- 
mer-house (little  edifice)  would  be  "just  the  spot"  for 
his  fanciful  tales. 

''Simple  as  it  looks,"  said  he,  ''this  little  edifice  seems 
to  be  the  work  of  magic.  It  is  full  of  suggestiveness, 
and,  in  its  "way,  is  as  good  as  a  cathedral.  Ah,  it  would 
be  just  the  spot  to  sit  in,  of  a  summer's  afternoon,  and 
tell  the  children  some  more  of  those  wild  stories  from 
the  classic  myths." 

Magic,  suggestiveness^  and  cathedral  were  quoted. 

2.  a.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  myths  as 
told  by  Hawthorne  in  the  Tanglewood  Tales  and  as  given 
in  the   Classical  Dictionary  ? 

h.    Which  reading  do  you  prefer  ? 
c.    Why? 

A  boy  preferred  the  reading  in  the  Classical  Diction- 
ary^ because  it  is  an  exact  rendering  of  the  mytlis ;  a 
girl  better  liked  Hawthorne's  versions,  because  she 
enjoyed  tlie  play  of  his  humor  and  fancy  about  as 
much  as  she  enjoyed  the  myths. 

3.  "  Jirufiis.   A    soothsayer   ])i(ls   you  beware   the  ides 

of  March. 
Ccesar.    Set  him  before  me ;  let  me  see  his  face. 
Cassius.    Fellow,  come  from  the  tliroug;  look  upon 

Csesar. 
Ca&sar.   What  sayest  thou  to  me  now  ?     Speak  once 

again. 


102  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

Soothsayer.    Beware  the  ides  of  March. 

Ccesar.    He  is  a  dreamer ;  let  us  leave  him :  pass." 

a.  Why  is  it  that  Caesar  wishes  to  see  the  face  of 
the  soothsayer  ? 

h.  Prove,  by  means  of  Caesar's  own  words  in  the 
quoted  lines,  that  your  answer  is  correct. 

4.  a.  Name  any  characteristics  common  to  Shake- 
speare's Shylock  and  Scott's  "  Isaac  of  York." 

b.  Has  the  study  of  these  two  characters  given  to 
you  new  thoughts  about  the  Jews  ?  If  so,  briefly  tell 
those  thoughts. 

5.  Contrast  Scott's  "  Rebecca "  and  Shakespeare's  Jes- 
sica with  reference  to  their  filial  devotion. 

6.  "  Speak,  strike,  redress  !    Am  I  entreated, 

To  speak  and  strike  ?    O  Kome  !  I  make  thee  promise, 
If  the  redress  will  follow,  thou  receivest 
Thy  full  petition  at  the  hand  of  Brutus  ! " 

In  the  last  two  lines  of  the  quoted  extract,  what 
does  Brutus  pledge  himself  to  do?  Material  for  your 
answer  is  contained  in  the  extract. 

7.  Defend  the  repetition  of  words  in  the  following: 
"Two  attempts  were  made  to  disturb  this  tranquillity, 

the  banished  heir  of  the  House  of  Stuart  headed  a 
rebellion ;  the  discontented  heir  of  the  House  of  Bruns- 
wick headed  an  opposition.  Both  the  rebellion  and  the 
opposition  came  to  nothing." 

8.  From  the  action  of  the  "  dark-gray  charger "  of 
Mamilius,  and  from  that  of  "Black  Auster,"  as  described 


WEEDING  AND   OTHER    TOPICS.  103 

by  Macaulay  in  "  The  Battle  of  the  Lake  Eegillus,"  what 
do  you  infer  regarding  the  character  of  each  master  ? 

9.  From  stanza  i.  of  Macaulay's  ''Lays  of  Ancient 
Some"  quote  the  words  that  would  lead  you  to  infer 
that  Lars  Porsena  would  keep  his  oath. 

10.  If  these  events  were  being  represented  on  the 
stage,  what  would  be  done  between  stanzas  xii.  and 
xiii.  ? 

11.  "This  is  she,  the  shepherd  girl,  counsellor  that 
had  none  for  herself,  whom  I  choose,  bishop,  for  yours. 
She  it  is,  I  engage,  that  shall  take  my  lord's  brief.  She 
it  is,  bishop,  that  would  plead  for  you :  yes,  bishop,  she 
—  when  heaven  and  earth  are  silent." 

Do  you  think  that  De  Quincey  was  warranted  in  assum- 
ing this  of  Joan  of  Arc  ?  Prove  that  your  opinion  is 
well-founded. 

12.  Of  the  enemies  of  Caesar  with  whom  you  have 
thus  far  become  acquainted,  —  Flavins,  Marullus,  Cassius, 
and  Brutus,  —  whom  would  you  be  most  unwilling  to 
have  for  your  enemy  ? 

Give  a  reason  for  your  answer. 

13.  Write  the  name  of  any  American  citizen  of  any 
period  who,  had  his  countrymen  been  Athenians  of  the 
time  of  Themistocles,  would  have  been  in  danger  of  os- 
tracism. 

Note.  —  IJotli  Wasliington  and  "Dirk"  Crokor  were  thought  to 
have  Iiad  suflieieiiL  power  to  be  included  in  the  list. 

14.  When  the  Greeks  returned  to  the  interior  of  their 
country   after  tlie   battle  of   ThcrmopyUe,   the    Athenians 


104  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

had  command  of  the  rear.     Why  does  Plutarch  say  that 
they  had  "  the  place  of  honor  and  danger  ? " 

15.  If  you  had  to  write  a  composition  composed  mostly 
of  Anglo-Saxon  words,  how  might  you  help  yourself  by 
a  choice  of  subjects? 

These  questions  have  been  selected  to  illustrate  the 
meaning  of  the  term  I  used,  "questions  to  provoke 
thought ;  "  there  will,  however,  be  others,  intended  to 
cultivate  the  sensibilities.  We  may  readily  prove  by 
psychologists,  naturalists,  and  poets,  that  much  will 
remain  hidden  from  him  who  has  great  intellectual 
capacity  but  is  without  deep  feeling.  You  will  remem- 
ber, for  instance,  how  careful  Richard  Realf  is  in  iS7/m- 
holisms  to  make  every  wind  that  blows  a  wind  of 
music,  and  the  humblest  flower  of  the  hedgerow  and 
the  bird  of  dullest  color,  bearers  of  "  a  living  word 
to  every  living  thing."  The  reading  of  such  living 
words  requires  more  than  thought ;  it  requires  feeling. 
Surely,  moreover,  the  power  to  think  and  the  power 
to  feel  demand  something  more  —  the  power  to  utter. 
Is  not  composition  successfully  taught  only  as  it 
fulfils  its  threefold  mission,  —  giving  mental  grasp,  a 
sympathy  for  what  is  fine,  and  the  power  to  use 
both  brain  and  heart? 


CHAPTER  X. 

CRITICISM. 

If  "the  art  of  judging  of  beauties  and  faults" 
is  criticism,  as  no  one  is  likely  to  deny,  then  the 
critic  must  be  a  judge.  But  what  kind  of  a  judge? 
Symonds,  in  his  essay  "  On  Some  Principles  of  Crit- 
icism," says,  "Aristotle  laid  it  down  as  an  axiom, 
that  the  ultimate  verdict  in  matters  of  taste  is  'what 
the  wise  man  would  decide.'"  Who,  then,  is  the 
wise  man?  Not  necessarily  he  with  the  most  learn- 
ing; but  surely  he  that  knows  goodness  and  truth 
and  beauty,  he  whose  own  mind  and  soul  ring  true. 
With  knowledge,  but  without  wisdom,  what  man  ever 
looked  into  the  heart  of  things?  ever  read  the  soul 
of  a  brother?  ever  understood  its  utterance?  With 
wisdom  alone,  may  not  a  man  learn  —  has  he  not 
already  begun  to  learn — of  eternal  things?  and  so 
may  he  not  recognize  work  that  interprets  eternal 
things?  Doubtless,  he  may  do  this,  and  so  truly 
value  —  in  so  far  as  his  personality  and  environment 
permit  —  tlic  spirit  of  a  work.  "A  sensible,  unlet- 
tered girl,"  says  an  authority,  "  is  a  better  critic  lliiin 
the  learned  simpleton  who  uses  the  stores  of  a  vast 


106  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

library  to  bolster  up  some  baseless  paradox.  Sense, 
in  the  region  of  criticism,  is  equivalent  to  imagina- 
tion. It  enables  its  possessor  to  distinguish  what  is 
or  may  be  from  what  cannot  be." 

But  the  spirit  has  its  body,  and  the  most  helpful 
critic  will  add  knowledge  to  his  wisdom,  even  a  knowl- 
edge of  technicalities,  and  will  then  be  able  to  appre- 
ciate and  to  estimate  both  spirit  and  body.  Matthew 
Arnold  declares  that  "the  judgment  which  almost 
insensibly  forms  itself  in  a  fair  and  clear  mind,  along 
with  fresh  knowledge,  is  the  valuable  one;  and  thus 
knowledge,  and  ever  fresh  knowledge,  must  be  the 
critic's  great  concern  for  himself."  From  all  this  we 
infer  that  the  true  critic  is  both  wise  and  a  learner; 
taught,  perhaps,  by  the  very  work  that  he  reviews, 
sometimes  led  by  a  child  to  the  perception  of  a 
higher  truth. 

The  rule  for  criticism  has  been  summed  up  by  Ar- 
nold in  one  word,  —  "  disinterestedness."  Preconceived 
notions,  whims,  fancies,  predilections,  —  from  all  these 
and  all  similar  things  the  mind  of  the  critic  must  be 
free;  he  approaches  a  work  to  test  it.  Impersonal 
Truth  is  his  magic  wand. 

What  should  be  the  critic's  attitude  ?  If  I  were  to 
paint  him,  it  should  be  as  a  listener,  as  one  receiving 
understandingly  into  a  mind  free  from  prejudice;  but 
he  should  unmistakably  show  —  by  his  clear  eye  and 
noble  head,   by  his   repose  and  dignity  and  spiritual- 


CRITICISM.  107 

ity  —  that  he  would  refuse  to  hear,  and  pass  on,  an 
unworthy  message. 

Let  us  leave  the  critic,  and,  for  a  moment,  consider 
what  he  judges.  Art  is  his  province ;  and  "  All  art 
is  a  presentation  of  the  inner  human  being,  his  thought 
and  feeling,  through  the  medium  of  beautiful  sym- 
bols in  word,  form,  color,  and  sound,"  says  Symonds. 
Realf  had  the  same  thought  when  he  wrote :  — 

"  Back  of  the  canvas  that  throbs, 
The  painter  is  hinted  and  hidden; 
Into  the  statue  tliat  breathes, 
The  soul  of  the  sculptor  is  bidden." 

And  Arnold  declares,  that  the  best  spiritual  work  of 
criticism  is  "  to  keep  man  from  a  self-satisfaction  which 
is  retarding  and  vulgarizing,  to  lead  him  toward  per- 
fection, by  making  his  mind  dwell  upon  what  is  excel- 
lent in  itself,  and  the  absolute  beauty  and  fitness  of 
things."     His  work  will  then  reflect  him  at  his  best. 

Agreeing  that  criticism  is  an  art  which  concerns  itself 
with  eternal  things,  with  "  abiding  relations,"  to 
quote  Goetlu;  llirougli  Symonds;  that  the  critic  needs 
to  bo  witliont  prejudice,  and  to  have  not  only  wisdom 
l>ut  also  knowledge,  l)oth  general  and  special ;  that 
the  rule  for  ci-iticisrn  is  disinterestedness;  and  that 
the  critic's  mission  is  hclpfiiliKjss,  the  keeping  of  man 
to  the  best, —  what  niay  we  evolve  fi'om  all  this  h)r 
the  teaclier  of  elementary  composition  ? 

With  reference  to  herself,  first  of  all,  we  arc  sure : 


108  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

1.  That  she  should  have,  at  least  the  beginning  of 
wisdom.  2.  That  she  should  continually  supplement 
this  with  knowledge,  culture,  3.  That  she  should 
have  a  spirit  of  fairness,  bringing  to  her  work  a  mind 
free  from  prejudices.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  even 
more  is  required  of  the  teacher  —  and  so  the  critic — 
in  elementary  composition ;  her  task  is  harder  than 
that  of  one  who  judges  a  great  and  finished  produc- 
tion. Often,  she  must  make  the  creative  atmosphere, 
must  give  the  impetus,  must  help  the  halting  speech, 
before  material  for  criticism  can  be  obtained.  So  it 
seems  to  me  that  sympathy,  a  certain  kind  of  clair- 
voyance, —  the  second-sight  tliat  can  read  another's 
mind  and  interpret  it  to  himself,  —  are  needed  by  a 
critic  of  the  most  elementary  work.  Let  me  illustrate 
my  meaning :  — 

A  composition  teacher  whom  I  used  often  to  see 
had  been  told  of  two  boys  about  to  enter  her  class. 
"You  can  do  nothing  with  them,"  said  her  informant. 
"Why  not?"  —  "They  care  for  nothing  but  draw- 
ing."—  "Oh,  they  do  care  for  drawing,  then."  She 
added  mentally,  "  If  they  care  for  any  earthly  thing, 
they  shall  care  for  composition." 

The  boys  entered  the  class  and  wrote  an  exercise, 
a  description  of  an  afternoon  on  a  skating-pond.  The 
teacher  interviewed  the  elder,  Ernest,  first.  He  had 
written  practically  nothing  but  a  number  of  short, 
disconnected  statements.     The  teacher  glanced  at  his 


CRITICISM.  109 

work,  saw  that  there  was  not,  apparently,  the  least  bit 
of  "  the  inner  human  being,  his  thought  and  feeling " 
in  it,  and  said,   "  Ernest,  did  you  enjoy  doing  this  ?  " 

—  "  No'm."  —  "  Why  not  ?  "  —  "  I  hate  composition." 

—  "Why?"— "Oh,  I  hate  it!"— "What  do  you 
like?"  —  "Drawing  and  painting."  —  "I  cannot  be- 
lieve you.  You  draw  nothing  here."  —  "You  didn't 
ask  me  to."  —  "Oh,  yes,  I  did;  a  description  is  a  pic- 
ture —  in  words.  Where  are  the  life  and  sparkle,  and 
the  glitter  and  color,  that  were  on  the  pond  ?  I  shall 
not  believe  that  you  like  to  draw  and  paint  until 
you  sketch  and  color  in  words  this  scene  on  the  ice." 
Before  their  talk  was  over,  the  boy  had  ceased  to 
hate  composition.  He  had  suggested  his  outline,  and 
was  lighting  up  his  picture. 

Then  came  Max,  a  wide-awake  little  fellow,  but 
dreading  his  talk  with  the  composition  teacher ;  for 
he,  too,  cherished  a  hatred  for  work  witli  language. 
"What  do  you  like.  Max?" —  "  Music." —"  Then  j^ou 
like  composition,  only  you  do  not  know  it."  And 
he  was  sliown  tliat  he  mifdit  do  with  words  wliat 
he  had  been  doing  witli  music. 

Later  came  a  young  girl,  sweet  and  intelligent 
looking,  and  c)l(ler  than  the  boys.  She  "simply  loatlied 
composition  work."—  "  Wliy  ?  "  —  "  Oli,  I  hate  it !  "  — 
"  What  do  you  like  ?  "  —  "  Matliematics."  —  "  Then  you 
will  like  composition.  But,  let  me  see,  do  you  like 
matliematics  ?     You   haven't   Ijeen   exact   in    this   sen- 


110  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

tence.  You  mean,  practically,  that  two  and  two 
make  four ;  but  you  have  contradicted  yourself,  and 
your  sentence  is  valueless.  It  is  as  bad  as  if  one  of 
your  signs  in  an  algebraic  equation  should  represent 
two  different  unknown  quantities.  Take  back  this 
composition,  and  criticise  it  yourself  as  you  would 
criticise  your  work  in  mathematics ;  then,  let  me  see 
it  again." 

The  next  time  this  teacher  met  the  pupils  to  whom 
we  have  referred,  she  actually  had  something  from 
each  that  she  could  criticise  with  enjoyment  and  profit 
for  all.  Ernest  had  made  a  sketch  —  a  clumsy  but 
promising  one  —  and  he  helped  the  teacher  find  in  it 
the  true  and  reject  the  false.  And  he  wished  to 
work  over  it  a  second  time.  Max  had  done  some- 
thing rhythmic  with  words,  and  said  that  he  would  like 
to  write  the  words  for  a  familiar  air.  And  the  young 
girl  had  a  page  that  said  something  in  accurate  fashion. 
All  were  eager  for  criticism  —  the  criticism  that  creates, 
as  Arnold  says,  "a  current  of  true  and  fresh  ideas." 
The  dead  were  alive. 

It  may  have  been  noted  that  the  criticisms  of  this 
teacher  were  broad  ones,  at  first.  As  young  children 
cannot  do  tlie  finest  work  tliat  calls  into  play  the 
finest  muscles  without  harming*  themselves,  so,  in 
their  writing,  if  they  develop  naturally,  they  will  not, 
at  first,  show  great  nicety  and  perfection  in  details, 
but  will  rather  gain  broad  effects. 


CRITICISM.  Ill 

The  teacher  of  elementary  composition,  moreover,  / 
leeds  to  be  both  generous  and  patient.  She  has,  let 
us  suppose,  a  paragraph  to  criticise.  It  appears  to 
have  no  meaning.  She  looks  at  its  title.  She  might 
so  easily  say  a  dozen  things  that  would  be  to  the 
point.  Pitt's  or  Burke's  or  Webster's  treatment  of 
the  same  thing  —  perhaps  the  subject  is  "•  Indepen- 
dence "  —  comes  into  her  mind.  This  is  her  moment 
of  temptation.  No;  she  will  not  yield,  but  will  find 
out  what  this  pupil  meant,  or  get  him  to  tell  it 
orally.  And  then  she  will  help  him  to  write  out 
clearly  what  he  meant.  With  the  thought  uttered, 
she  can,  at  last,  criticise  in  such  a  way  as  to  create 
"a  current  of  true  and  fresh  ideas."  No  matter  what 
Pitt  or  Burke  or  Webster  might  think  or  say ;  that, 
at  first,  is  of  no  consequence ;  the  thought  in  the 
boyish  mind  must  be  discovered  and  clothed  with 
speech.  That  will  be  his  victory ;  he  will  begin  to 
like  composition.  Later,  after  his  own  little  rough 
diamond  has  been  brought  to  light,  lie  may,  with 
profit,  study  some  gems  of  literature  that  express  a 
thought  similar  to  his  own. 

In  order  to  obtain  material,  the  teacher  of  elemen- 
tary composition  needs  to  cultivate  in  lier  jjupils  the 
power  both  to  think  and  to  feel ;  for  only  out  of 
the  fulness  of  the  mind  and  lieart  can  the  mouth 
speak;  only  thus  can  composition  reveal  "the  ijuicr 
human  being,  his  thouglit  and  feeling." 


112  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

So,  to  the  qualities  required  in  a  critic  of  adult 
work,  we  would  add  for  the  teacher  of  elementary 
composition:  a  kind  of  S3'nipathetic  second-sight,  ena- 
bling her  to  read  even  what  is  obscure  in  the  childish 
mind,  generosity  and  patience  enough  to  make  her 
successful  in  bringing  to  light  and  helping  to  shape 
half -formed  thoughts,  and  the  power  to  rouse  thought 
and  to  feed  the  sensibilities. 

But  there  is  left,  it  seems  to  me,  another  point  for 
us  to  consider.  How  shall  criticisms  be  made?  Shall 
we  see  each  pupil  by  himself?  That  is  often  most 
desirable  and  profitable.  But  class-room  criticism  is 
inevitable.  If  we  undertake  it,  shall  we  approach  our 
class  as  if  they  were  our  victims,  and  seek  to  conceal 
our  sharp  knife  by  an  apologetic  bearing?  Shall. they 
feel  that  we  are  about  to  make  a  savage  and  personal 
attack,  and,  as  a  consequence  of  such  feeling  on  their 
part,  shall  we  conceal  the  identity  of  the  boy  or  girl 
to  be  criticised?  "By  no  means,"  I  should  answer  to 
all  these  questions.  I  would  have  a  class  learn  to 
consider  its  own  work  impartially ;  I  would  have  indi- 
viduals do  the  same.  I  would  show  them  that  only 
vanity  can  create  restlessness  or  pain  under  criticism. 
Something  after  this  fashion,  it  might  be :  — 

"  To-day,  we  have  our  first  talk  about  what  we  did 
last  week.  These  talks  are  meant  to  help  everybody 
—  you  and  me.  If  you  feel  friendly  toward  anyone, 
you  will  criticise  him,  provided  you  have  grounds  for 


CRITICISM.  113 

criticism ;  just  as  you  would  tell  him  if  there  were  a 
bunch  of  burrs  on  his  coat-sleeve."  Then  I  would 
select  a  boy,  and  say,  "  We  will  take  your  paragraph 
fu'st.  But  before  your  friends  —  the  class  and  I  — 
help  you,  helj)  yourself.  You  are  a  week  older  than 
when  you  wrote  the  exercise ;  you  have,  undoubtedl}-, 
grown  meutall}'.  While  your  friends  are  thinking, 
become  your  own  judge."  Often,  a  boy  will  do  a 
good  deal  for  himself.  After  his  own  criticism,  if  no 
one  volunteers  and  there  are  evident  faults,  I  would 
say,  perhaps,  "  I  am  sorry  that  you  are  not  more 
popular ! " 

In  all  my  own  experience  of  many  years  I  have  '^ 
never  found  it  difficult  to  have  both  class  and  teacher 
criticise  freely,  and  yet  have  the  feeling  of  good-fel- 
lowship increase.  If  this  direct  method  be  used,  it 
is  not  long  before  a  pupil  asks  for  criticism,  as  nat- 
urally as  he  miglit  ask  whether  or  not  his  hat  needed 
brushing.  If  liis  class  give  the  criticism,  he  is  as  little 
offended  as  he  would  have  been  had  liis  teacher  done  so. 

William  E.  Dodge,  in  a  practical  talk  to  a  class  of 
boys  and  girls  about  to  graduate,  assured  them  that 
an  important  factor  in  their  success  and  influence 
would  be  exact  knowledge  of  themselves,  —  of  their 
own  strength  and  weakness,  and  of  tlicir  al)ility  or 
lack  of  aljility  in  any  special  direction.  Such  criti- 
cism as  the  class  criticism  just  described  helps  a  pupil 
to  estimate  himself. 


; 


114  ELEMENTARY  COMPOSITION. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  teacher  of  elementary 
composition  is  something  more  than  a  critic ;  she  is  a 
maker  of  critics.  If  her  classes  become  heedful,  if 
she  rouses  "currents  of  true  and  fresh  ideas,"  she 
will  have  done  more  for  them  than  the  mere  eluci- 
dation of  pages  in  grammars  and  rhetorics,  or  the 
correction  of  dozens  of  formal  exercises,  could  have 
done.  Education  is,  of  course,  progressive,  and  it  is 
the  teacher  of  elementary  composition  that  begins  to 
educate  the  critical  faculty,  —  that  power  to  perceive 
what  is  in  accordance  with  what  actually  is  or  may 
be. 


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